DYNAMICS OF EARTHQUAKE FAULTS

The authors present an overview of ongoing studies of the rich dynamic al behavior of the uniform, deterministic Burridge-Knopoff model of an earthquake fault, discussing the model's behavior in the context of c urrent seismology. The topics considered include: (1) basic properties of the model, such as the distinction between small and large events and the magnitude vs frequency distribution; (2) dynamics of individua l events, including dynamical selection of rupture propagation speeds; (3) generalizations of the model to more realistic, higher-dimensiona l models; and (4) studies of predictability, in which artificial catal ogs generated by the model are used to test and determine the limitati ons of pattern recognition algorithms used in seismology.