Avalanche Unstable Fracturing Formation Model

Abstract

The main ideas of the model of avalanche unstable fracturing formation (AUF) were for the first time presented by the scientists of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Assembly of International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in Moscow in 1971 and published in a special issue of the Tectonophysics journal in 1972. Subsequently, numerous laboratory and in situ experiments validated and developed the AUF model. The model relies on the fundamental principles of the physics of long-term strength. It is independent of the scale of a phenomenon and is applicable for describing the rupture preparation not only in the sources of earthquakes with different levels of energy but also for dynamic events in mines and for the failure of engineering structures under long-term loading. With the use of the model, the formation of the widespread en-echelon fracture systems is explained. The earthquake preparation process develops gradually, which suggests the possibility of forecasting the time of a future seismic event. The model substantiates the self-evolution of the earthquake process.