Influence of the Spatial Model of Lithospheric Plates on an Initial Earthquake

Abstract

The boundary-value problem for a block structure consisting of an elastic half-space that occupies the lower part of a Cartesian coordinate system and interacts with two block elements in the form of unbounded wedges with right angles at the vertices is considered. The horizontal boundaries of the wedges are rigidly connected with the half-space boundary, and vertical ones are parallel planes. We consider the antiplane problem for cases where the distance between the vertical boundaries of block elements is present or absent. By the example of a three-dimensional problem degenerating into a two-dimensional one, it is shown that an initial earthquake is possible, like in the case of using Kirchhoff plates instead of three-dimensional block elements.