dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaComment on "Analysis of the Spatial Distribution between Successive Earthquakes" by Davidsen and Paczuski
| Authors | M. J. Werner, D. Sornette |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0608161 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0608161 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.179801 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters 99, 179801 (2007) |
Abstract
By analyzing a southern California earthquake catalog, Davidsen and Paczuski [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 048501 (2005)] claim to have found evidence contradicting the theory of aftershock zone scaling in favor of scale-free statistics. We present four elements showing that Davidsen and Paczuski's results may be insensitive to the existence of physical length scales associated with aftershock zones or mainshock rupture lengths, so that their claim is unsubstantiated. (i) Their exponent smaller than 1 for a pdf implies that the power law statistics they report is at best an intermediate asymptotic; (ii) their power law is not robust to the removal of 6 months of data around Landers earthquake within a period of 17 years; (iii) the same analysis for Japan and northern California shows no evidence of robust power laws; (iv) a statistical model of earthquake triggering that explicitely obeys aftershock zone scaling can reproduce the observed histogram of Davidsen and Paczuski, demonstrating that their statistic may not be sensitive to the presence of characteristic scales associated with earthquake triggering.
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"abstract": "By analyzing a southern California earthquake catalog, Davidsen and Paczuski\n[Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 048501 (2005)] claim to have found evidence contradicting\nthe theory of aftershock zone scaling in favor of scale-free statistics. We\npresent four elements showing that Davidsen and Paczuski\u0027s results may be\ninsensitive to the existence of physical length scales associated with\naftershock zones or mainshock rupture lengths, so that their claim is\nunsubstantiated. (i) Their exponent smaller than 1 for a pdf implies that the\npower law statistics they report is at best an intermediate asymptotic; (ii)\ntheir power law is not robust to the removal of 6 months of data around Landers\nearthquake within a period of 17 years; (iii) the same analysis for Japan and\nnorthern California shows no evidence of robust power laws; (iv) a statistical\nmodel of earthquake triggering that explicitely obeys aftershock zone scaling\ncan reproduce the observed histogram of Davidsen and Paczuski, demonstrating\nthat their statistic may not be sensitive to the presence of characteristic\nscales associated with earthquake triggering.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0608161",
"authors": [
"M. J. Werner",
"D. Sornette"
],
"categories": [
"physics.geo-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.179801",
"journal_ref": "Physical Review Letters 99, 179801 (2007)",
"title": "Comment on \"Analysis of the Spatial Distribution between Successive Earthquakes\" by Davidsen and Paczuski",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0608161"
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