Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited

The size or energy of diverse structures or phenomena in geoscience appears to follow power law distributions. A rigorous statistical analysis of such observations is tricky, though. Observables can span several orders of magnitude, but the range for which the power law may be valid is typically tru...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Corral, Á., González, Á.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2072/445781
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/2072/445781
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:51
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spelling Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience RevisitedCorral, Á.González, Á.51The size or energy of diverse structures or phenomena in geoscience appears to follow power law distributions. A rigorous statistical analysis of such observations is tricky, though. Observables can span several orders of magnitude, but the range for which the power law may be valid is typically truncated, usually because the smallest events are too tiny to be detected and the largest ones are limited by the system size. We revisit several examples of proposed power law distributions dealing with potentially damaging natural phenomena. Adequate fits of the distributions of sizes are especially important in these cases, given that they may be used to assess long-term hazard. After reviewing the theoretical background for power law distributions, we improve an objective statistical fitting method and apply it to diverse data sets. The method is described in full detail, and it is easy to implement. Our analysis elucidates the range of validity of the power law fit and the corresponding exponent and whether a power law tail is improved by a truncated lognormal. We confirm that impact fireballs and Californian earthquakes show untruncated power law behavior, whereas global earthquakes follow a double power law. Rain precipitation over space and time and tropical cyclones show a truncated power law regime. Karst sinkholes and wildfires, in contrast, are better described by truncated lognormals, although wildfires also may show power law regimes. Our conclusions only apply to the analyzed data sets but show the potential of applying this robust statistical technique in the future. ©2019. The Authors.Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd2019info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion25 p.application/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/2072/445781RECERCAT (Dipòsit de la Recerca de Catalunya)reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:2072/4457812026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
title Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
spellingShingle Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
Corral, Á.
51
title_short Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
title_full Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
title_fullStr Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
title_full_unstemmed Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
title_sort Power Law Size Distributions in Geoscience Revisited
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Corral, Á.
González, Á.
author Corral, Á.
author_facet Corral, Á.
González, Á.
author_role author
author2 González, Á.
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv 51
topic 51
description The size or energy of diverse structures or phenomena in geoscience appears to follow power law distributions. A rigorous statistical analysis of such observations is tricky, though. Observables can span several orders of magnitude, but the range for which the power law may be valid is typically truncated, usually because the smallest events are too tiny to be detected and the largest ones are limited by the system size. We revisit several examples of proposed power law distributions dealing with potentially damaging natural phenomena. Adequate fits of the distributions of sizes are especially important in these cases, given that they may be used to assess long-term hazard. After reviewing the theoretical background for power law distributions, we improve an objective statistical fitting method and apply it to diverse data sets. The method is described in full detail, and it is easy to implement. Our analysis elucidates the range of validity of the power law fit and the corresponding exponent and whether a power law tail is improved by a truncated lognormal. We confirm that impact fireballs and Californian earthquakes show untruncated power law behavior, whereas global earthquakes follow a double power law. Rain precipitation over space and time and tropical cyclones show a truncated power law regime. Karst sinkholes and wildfires, in contrast, are better described by truncated lognormals, although wildfires also may show power law regimes. Our conclusions only apply to the analyzed data sets but show the potential of applying this robust statistical technique in the future. ©2019. The Authors.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/2072/445781
url http://hdl.handle.net/2072/445781
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv 25 p.
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv RECERCAT (Dipòsit de la Recerca de Catalunya)
reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
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