Tectonic and seismological settings of subduction

A lot of achievements of self-organization theory in geophysics are based on the existence of basic structured media models. The structure plays a key role in Earth’s crust dynamic that is important for tectonic stress origin and localization as well as for next stress-relieved processes. We have developed a new fully dynamic theory of continental rifting based on a model of the lithosphere, incorporating both dynamic and thermal processes, by solving a coupled system of differential equations governing stress and temperature in a 2D block-structured geophysical medium.

Now we will apply our theory for investigations of compression processes in lithosphere such as subduction and seismic related events. Seismic waves accompanying the subduction process are predicted as catastrophic released energy from prestressed mega block in such structured medium. They will be investigated in future on a seismic time scale taking into account the peculiarities of lithospheric internal structure, dynamical processes occurring on the level of structural elements and the exchange of energy between different degrees of freedom.

A new model of earthquake source is proposed.