Dependence of sandpile avalanche frequency–size distribution on coverage extent and compactness of embedded toppling threshold heterogeneity: implications for the variation of Gutenberg&ndash;Richter <i>b</i> value

Chiao, L.-Y.; Liu, Q.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-21-1185-2014

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-21-1185-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-21-1185-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

Research article

|

05 Dec 2014

Research article |

| 05 Dec 2014

Dependence of sandpile avalanche frequency–size distribution on coverage extent and compactness of embedded toppling threshold heterogeneity: implications for the variation of Gutenberg–Richter b value

L.-Y. Chiao and Q. Liu

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Short summary

We implemented sandpile cellular automata to examine the effects of the heterogeneous toppling threshold on the global avalanche statistics. A systematic scaling exponent increase is revealed by increasing the coverage extent and decreasing the compactness rather than varying the range of contrast or the diversity. The distinct extent and compactness of the heterogeneous failure threshold are thus likely critical factors that manifest in the reported dynamic variations of seismicity scaling.