TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Mapping heterogeneities through avalanche statistics
JO  - Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
A1  - Biswas, Soumyajyoti
A1  - Goehring, Lucas
SP  - e0388
EP  - e0388
VL  - 377
IS  - 2136
N2  - Avalanche statistics of various threshold-activated dynamical systems are known to depend on the magnitude of the drive, or stress, on the system. Such dependences exist for earthquake size distributions, in sheared granular avalanches, laboratory-scale fracture and also in the outage statistics of power grids. In this work, we model threshold-activated avalanche dynamics and investigate the time required to detect local variations in the ability of model elements to bear stress. We show that the detection time follows a scaling law where the scaling exponents depend on whether the feature that is sought is either weaker, or stronger, than its surroundings. We then look at earthquake data from Sumatra and California, demonstrate the trade-off between the spatial resolution of a map of earthquake exponents (i.e. the <i>b</i>-values of the Gutenberg-Richter Law) and the accuracy of those exponents, and suggest a means to maximize both.This article is part of the theme issue 'Statistical physics of fracture and earthquakes'.<br><br>© 2018 The Author(s).<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1364-503X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0388
ID  - ref1
ER  -