Analysis of ground deformation due to movement of a sequence of interacting fault model

In seismology, the nature of ground deformation in seismically active regions between two major seismic events has an immense connection with fault movement and other ground damages in those regions. So, understanding of geophysical stress accumulation scenario in this aseismic period and its effects on the faults is a very important aspect of figuring out which faults are most likely to generate further fault movement in the future. The way that faults interact with each other controls fault geometries, displacements and strains. Faults rarely occur individually but as sets or networks, with the arrangement of these faults producing a variety of different fault interactions. In this study, the effect of movement of a sequence of interacting faults on ground deformation where the interaction occurs between a sequence of infinite faults with a finite fault has been analyzed. The nature of the faults is taken as buried, inclined, creeping, strike-slip and the medium of the fault is considered as an isotropic homogeneous viscoelastic half-space of Maxwell medium. The ground displacement due to fault interaction and stress–strain accumulation/release across one fault effected by the neighbouring faults has been established by using integral transform and modified Green’s function technique. The significant effect of various affecting parameters viz. inclinations of the faults, velocity of the fault movement and depth of the faults from the free surface on ground deformation have been represented graphically. This study allows us to better understand the rapture process history of an earthquake and this could be a contribution to the earthquake prediction program.