Forest-Fire Analogy to Explain the b Value of the Gutenberg-Richter Law for Earthquakes

The Dro¨ssel-Schwabl model of forest fires can be interpreted in a coarse-grained sense as a model for the stress distribution in a single planar fault. Fires in the model are then translated to earthquakes. I show that when a second class of trees that propagate fire only after some finite time is...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Jagla, Eduardo Alberto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/654
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/654
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:earthquakes
statistical mechanics
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
Descripción
Sumario:The Dro¨ssel-Schwabl model of forest fires can be interpreted in a coarse-grained sense as a model for the stress distribution in a single planar fault. Fires in the model are then translated to earthquakes. I show that when a second class of trees that propagate fire only after some finite time is introduced in the model, secondary fires (analogous to aftershocks) are generated, and the statistics of events becomes quantitatively compatible with the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes, with a realistic value of the b exponent. The change in exponent is analytically demonstrated in a simplified percolation scenario. Experimental consequences of the proposed mechanism are indicated.