Ig. Main et al., One slope or two? Detecting statistically significant breaks of slope in geophysical data, with application to fracture scaling relationships, GEOPHYS R L, 26(18), 1999, pp. 2801-2804
The scaling of displacement as a function of length is important for a vari
ety of applications which depend on the mechanical and hydraulic properties
of faults and fractures. Recently it has been suggested that the power-law
exponent nu which has been found to characterise this relationship may cha
nge significantly at a characteristic length for a variety of reasons, for
example when cracks begin to interact, or when faults grow to a length comp
arable to a characteristic size in the brittle layer. Such a break of slope
requires a second straight line, requiring two extra model parameters. Her
e we present a new method for analysing such data, which penalises the extr
a parameters using a modified form of Schwarz's Information Criterion, and
a Bayesian approach which represents uncertainty in the unknown parameters.
We apply the method to data from the Krafla fissure zone in the north of I
celand, and find a significant break of slope, from nu approximate to 3/2 t
o nu approximate to 2/3, at a characteristic length of 12 m.