Topological and dynamic complexity of rock masses based on GIS and complex networks

Lithosphere is composed of a great number of rock masses. Crustal movement may cause the fracture of rock masses and stimulate tremendous energy. The interaction between rock masses may affect deep geological processes, especially earthquakes. This paper studies the spatial distribution of rock masses and proposes a network analysis method for mining the topological and functional characteristics of rock masses from complex networks and geographical information science (GIS) perspectives. Geological survey data covering Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality is used for experiments. Results show that if we do not consider the rock type or strength, the degree distribution of rock mass network satisfies power-law distribution; for nine types of rock masses and five levels of strengths, their topological relationships all follow power-law distributions. Moreover, the power-law exponents are greatly different for different rock types and strengths that may affect the interactions between rock masses.