Surface Rupturing and Buried Dynamic-Rupture Models Calibrated with Statistical Observations of Past Earthquakes

In the context of the slip-weakening friction model and simplified asper-ity models for stress state, we calibrate dynamic rupture models for buried and surface-rupturing earthquakes constrained with statistical observations of past earth-quakes. These observations are the kinematic source models derived from source in-versions of ground-motion and empirical source models of seismic moment and rupture area. The calibrated parameters are the stress-drop distribution on the fault and average stress drop. We develop a set of dynamic rupture models that consist of asperities and surrounding background areas. The distribution of dynamic stress drop outside the asperity is characterized by a fraction of the stress drop on the as-perity. From this set of models, we identify dynamic fault models with defined stress-drop characteristics that satisfy the observations. The selected dynamic fault models show that surface-rupturing earthquakes are characterized by a large area of negative stress-drop surrounding the asperities, while buried earthquakes present positive or zero stress drop. In addition, the calibrated fault models that match the observations show that the average stress drop is independent of earthquake size for buried earth-