We present a fault model consisting of a large number of collinear cracks and intervening asperities for the simulation of seismicity and recurrence of large earthquakes on a fault. We apply fracture mechanics to the analysis of the interaction of cracks and to the consideration of fracture condition. Our fault model gives rise to a complex frequency distribution of event sizes even if no externally imposed spatial inhomogeneity is assumed for the distribution of cracks and asperities and a homogeneous statistical distribution is assumed for fracture strengths. The frequency distribution of event sizes is found to be bimodal with no intermediate size event in all the calculations. For the smaller events the frequency distribution shows a power law behavior, whereas the larger size events denote ones that rupture the whole fault. Statistically, the same frequency distributions are obtained for inhomogeneous distributions of crack lengths and fracture strengths. The occurrence of events that rupture the whole fault is shown to be periodic when the fault is for given fault length and rate of remote loading. The events having a longer recurrence period have a shorter fault length for given magnitude and rate of remote loading. If there are fault interactions, the periodicity in the recurrence of the large events that would be observed for the isolated fault disappears and the recurrence of the large events becomes complex. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993