SCALING RELATIONSHIPS OF FRACTURES ON KILAUEA VOLCANO, HAWAII

The Great Crack is approximately 13km long, extending southwest from Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. It consists of overstepping segments that are concentrated in a straight, narrow zone. The southern-most 5.4km of the Great Crack was analysed to determine scaling relationships and was compared to similar, smaller fractures. Analysis was also carried out on: a)a zone of fractures approximately 1km long in the Koa'e Fault System on the south flank of Kilauea, and b)an 8m long zone of cracks that developed on a roadway near the summit of Kilauea after and earthquake. The length and maximum widths of all continuous segments within each zone were measured and aspect ratios were calculated. Whole zone aspect ratios were also calculated using the maximum segment width observed in the zone and the total length of the zone.

Normalized plots of all data and comparison of aspect ratios for the three zones indicate that the Great Crack does not show a simple scaling relationship with the smaller fracture zones at the scale of individual segments. The comparison of whole zone aspect ratios and the similar trend of each data set towards its respective whole zone ratio suggest, however, that the three zones do follow a linar relationship at the zone scale. Scatter within all data sets can be attributed to the mechanism of fracture growth by interaction and linkage of segments.