title: Statistical similarity between the compression of a porous material and earthquakes.
abstract: It has long been stated that there are profound analogies between fracture experiments and earthquakes; however, few works attempt a complete characterization of the parallels between these so separate phenomena. We study the acoustic emission events produced during the compression of Vycor (SiO(2)). The Gutenberg-Richter law, the modified Omori's law, and the law of aftershock productivity hold for a minimum of 5 decades, are independent of the compression rate, and keep stationary for all the duration of the experiments. The waiting-time distribution fulfills a unified scaling law with a power-law exponent close to 2.45 for long times, which is explained in terms of the temporal variations of the activity rate.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. jordibaro@ecm.ub.edu
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baró
authors.forename: Álvaro
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Illa
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Planes
authors.forename: Ekhard K H
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Salje
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schranz
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Soto-Parra
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vives