1201.5596 (L. E. Aragón et al.)

Seismic cycles, size of the largest events, and the avalanche size
distribution in a model of seismicity    [PDF]

L. E. Aragón, E. A. Jagla, A. Rosso

We address several questions on the behavior of a numerical model recently
introduced to study seismic phenomena, that includes relaxation in the plates
as a key ingredient. We make an analysis of the scaling of the largest events
with system size, and show that when parameters are appropriately interpreted,
the typical size of the largest events scale as the system size, without the
necessity to tune any parameter. Secondly, we show that the temporal activity
in the model is inherently non-stationary, and obtain from here justification
and support for the concept of a "seismic cycle" in the temporal evolution of
seismic activity. Finally, we ask for the reasons that make the model display a
realistic value of the decaying exponent $b$ in the Gutenberg-Richter law for
the avalanche size distribution. We explain why relaxation induces a systematic
increase of $b$ from its value $b\simeq 0.4$ observed in the absence of
relaxation. However, we have not been able to justify the actual robustness of
the model in displaying a consistent $b$ value around the experimentally
observed value $b\simeq 1$.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.5596