Energy budget of quasi-dynamic earthquake cycle

<p>The elastic medium that hosts several, multi-scale, faults could be regarded as an energy reservoir that is charged by the far field stress rate and discharged by friction dissipation during earthquake slips on the faults. &#160;In this study, we carefully analyze the energy budget variations that occur throughout a synthetic, 2D plane-strain, earthquake cycle on a fault system comprising of a main fault surrounded by a hierarchy of off-fault slip planes/fractures. We evaluate the rate of kinetic energy variation, stress power across the continuum, far field power supply, and the dissipation due to the rate-and-state friction on the faults given a spectrum of slips ranging from slow-slip to rapid ruptures. We study how the medium's energy budget evolves after these components have been determined. &#160;Additionally, we compute the dissipation rate for a variety of slip rates to determine the contributions of so-called slow-slip events, low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs), and tremors to this budget. We also evaluate the share of off-fault fractures to determine their energetic role during earthquake cycles.</p>