2023-08-09 04:00:04
The Earth does not shake randomly. The analysis of numerous data from seismicity catalogs has made it possible to empirically determine two key statistical laws describing their characteristics. Omori’s law defines the decrease in the number (The notion of number in linguistics is covered in the article “Number…) of followingshocks that occur following a large earthquake, while Gutenberg-Richter’s law establishes that the frequency (In physics, frequency generally refers to the measurement of the number of times a…) earthquakes depends on their magnitude. However, the physical processes governing these empirical laws are poorly understood.
In a recent work, scientists relate the statistical properties of earthquakes (magnitude, frequency, etc.) to those of long-range correlated fractal random surfaces. This relationship helps to understand why and how the different characteristics of earthquakes are statistically related.
In a recent study, a Franco-Japanese collaboration between the Physics Laboratory of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (LPENS), the Institute (An institute is a permanent organization created for a certain purpose. It is…) of Physics Globe of Paris (Paris is a French city, capital of France and the capital of the region…) (IPGP), the University (A university is a higher education institution whose objective is the …) of Osaka and the Laboratory of Geology (Geology, from ancient Greek γη- (gê-, “earth”) and…) of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (LGENS), highlighted a mechanism physics that might explain the origin of these empirical laws. Scientists have used several simplified fault models to reproduce the statistical laws governing earthquakes (Earth is the third planet in the Solar System in order of distance…). They then discovered a fundamental link between these laws and the mathematical properties of random surfaces representing fault planes.
The study reveals that the stress field accumulated on the fault planes before a seismic rupture presents a random and self-similar or fractal structure This stress field retains its characteristics whatever the scale and thus determines those of large-scale earthquakes (The large scale, also called aerial scale or self-scale, is a…). Gutenberg’s laws -Richter and Omori can then be explained by the mathematical properties of random surfaces.
These results, published in the journal Physical Review E., open interesting perspectives: an in-depth characterization of the random surfaces of fault planes might allow a better understanding of the physical processes associated with earthquakes.
References
Earthquake Magnitude Distribution and Aftershocks: A Statistical Geometry Explanation, F. P̩trelis, K. Chanard, A. Schubnel, and T. Hatano, Phys. Rev. Fr. E, Published March 22, 2023 РDoi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.107.034132
According to the article originally published on the INP-CNRS website:
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