Autosoliton View of the Seismic Process. Part 1. Possibility of Generation and Propagation of Slow Deformation Autosoliton Disturbances in Geomedia

A new autosoliton view is developed for the seismic process. In physical terms, faults correspond to stationary autosolitons, and inter- and intrafault deformation disturbances are traveling autosolitons. Slow dynamics reveals itself only on large time scales because slow autosoliton disturbances, as a rule, have velocities 4–7 orders of magnitude lower than the sound velocity. It is shown that, in the loaded strong medium, slow autowave and autosoliton disturbances are generated by short dynamic actions (pulses) at interfaces. In real geomaterials, these are block boundaries and various-scale faults. Dynamic movements of structural elements cause the deformation autowaves and autosolitons to propagate from the interfaces into blocks and along faults. Velocities of such deformation autowaves and autosolitons are low and proportional to velocities of the related movements of structural elements in the geomedium. Propagating in structural elements that are in a certain stress-strain state, deformation autowaves and autosolitons can be taken as small disturbances of the existing fields of the stress-strain state. A mathematical model is represented for the geomaterial treated as a nonequilibrium randomly inhomogeneous medium. Special features of the generation and propagation of deformation autosolitons in such media are studied.