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

Area of Science:

• * Seismology and complex systems science.
• * Computational physics and geophysics.

Background:

• * The Olami, Feder, and Christensen (OFC) spring-block model is a key tool for analyzing earthquake data.
• * Utsu's law describes the relationship between mainshocks and their aftershocks, a fundamental aspect of seismology.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To investigate the reproducibility of Utsu's law within the OFC spring-block model.
• * To compare synthetic earthquakes generated by the OFC model with real seismic data.
• * To develop and validate a new formula for calculating earthquake aftershock areas.

Main Methods:

• * Performing simulations of seismic regions using the OFC spring-block model.
• * Applying Utsu's formulae to identify potential aftershock zones around maximum simulated earthquakes.
• * Comparing different equations for aftershock area calculation and proposing a novel one.
• * Analyzing the spatial distribution and characteristics of simulated events to classify them as aftershocks.

Main Results:

• * Successful reproduction of Utsu's law using the OFC spring-block model.
• * Identification of aftershock areas in simulations that closely resemble those predicted by Utsu's law.
• * Validation of the proposed new formula for aftershock area calculation.
• * Spatial analysis confirmed that simulated events could be classified as aftershocks.

Conclusions:

• * The OFC spring-block model, operating under self-organized criticality (SOC), can effectively reproduce Utsu's law.
• * This research provides a computational framework for understanding earthquake aftershock sequences.
• * The findings contribute to the broader study of earthquake dynamics and predictability.