On the Possibility of Reproducing Utsu’s Law for Earthquakes with a Spring-Block SOC Model

Abstract

The Olami, Feder and Christensen (OFC) spring-block model has proven to be a powerful tool for analyzing and comparing synthetic and real earthquakes. This work proposes the possible reproduction of Utsu’s law for earthquakes in the OFC model. Based on our previous works, several simulations characterizing real seismic regions were performed. We located the maximum earthquake in these regions and applied Utsu’s formulae to identify a possible aftershock area and made comparisons between synthetic and real earthquakes. The research compares several equations to calculate the aftershock area and proposes a new one with the available data. Subsequently, the team performed new simulations and chose a mainshock to analyze the behavior of the surrounding events, so as to identify whether they could be catalogued as aftershocks and relate them to the aftershock area previously determined using the formula proposed. Additionally, the spatial location of those events was considered in order to classify them as aftershocks. Finally, we plot the epicenters of the mainshock, and the possible aftershocks comprised in the calculated area resembling the original work of Utsu. Having analyzed the results, it is likely to say that Utsu’s law is reproducible using a spring-block model with a self-organized criticality (SOC) model.

Keywords

• self-organized criticality
• spring-block
• seismicity
• Utsu law
• aftershocks