Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 178501 (2002) [4 pages]Unified Scaling Law for EarthquakesSee Also: Editorial Note Received 11 August 2001; published 10 April 2002 We show that the distribution of waiting times between earthquakes occurring in California obeys a simple unified scaling law valid from tens of seconds to tens of years. The short time clustering, commonly referred to as aftershocks, is nothing but the short time limit of the general hierarchical properties of earthquakes. There is no unique operational way of distinguishing between main shocks and aftershocks. In the unified law, the Gutenberg-Richter b value, the exponent -1 of the Omori law for aftershocks, and the fractal dimension df of earthquakes appear as critical indices. © 2002 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.178501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.178501
PACS:
91.30.Dk, 05.65.+b, 89.75.Da
See AlsoEditorial Note: Per Bak, Kim Christensen, Leon Danon, and Tim Scanlon, Editorial Note: Unified Scaling Law for Earthquakes [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 178501 (2002)], Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 109901 (2003). |
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