English

Are seismic waiting time distributions universal?

Statistical Mechanics 2015-06-24 v1 Geophysics

Abstract

We show that seismic waiting time distributions in California and Iceland have many features in common as, for example, a power-law decay with exponent α1.1\alpha \approx 1.1 for intermediate and with exponent γ0.6\gamma \approx 0.6 for short waiting times. While the transition point between these two regimes scales proportionally with the size of the considered area, the full distribution is not universal and depends in a non-trivial way on the geological area under consideration and its size. This is due to the spatial distribution of epicenters which does \emph{not} form a simple mono-fractal. Yet, the dependence of the waiting time distributions on the threshold magnitude seems to be universal.

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0410444,
  title  = {Are seismic waiting time distributions universal?},
  author = {Jörn Davidsen and Christian Goltz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0410444},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Geophys. Res. Lett

R2 v1 2026-07-22T11:09:14.068Z