Scale invariance and intermittency in a creep-slip model of earthquake faults

The dynamics of a generalization of the one-dimensional, spatially discretized Burridge-Knopoff model (slider-block model) is investigated numerically. Plastic deformation of the fault interface is considered in addition to rigid sliding (creep-slip model). The event-size distribution exhibits scale invariance (beta=1.5), as does the power spectral density of the intermittent time series of the spatially averaged sliding rate (sigma=1.3). A diffusive cellular automaton model that reproduces the algebraic correlations in the event-size distribution in the presence of dissipation is proposed.