Obtaining the size distribution of fault gouges with polydisperse bearings

TL;DR

This paper extends the model of random space-filling bearings to include variable spacing offsets, successfully reproducing the size distributions of fault gouges and suggesting a link to seismic gaps.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized model with random offsets that better matches observed fault gouge size distributions and explores the impact of different offset distributions.

Findings

Polydisperse bearings reproduce fault gouge size distributions.

Uniform offset distribution best matches real fault data.

Fractal dimensions align with those observed in natural faults.

Abstract

We generalize the recent study of random space-filling bearings to a more realistic situation, where the spacing offset varies randomly during the space-filling procedure, and show that it reproduces well the size-distributions observed in recent studies of real fault gouges. In particular, we show that the fractal dimensions of random polydisperse bearings sweep predominantly the low range of values in the spectrum of fractal dimensions observed along real faults, which strengthen the evidence that polydisperse bearings may explain the occurrence of seismic gaps in nature. In addition, the influence of different distributions for the offset is studied and we find that the uniform distribution is the best choice for reproducing the size-distribution of fault gouges.