Levy Flights and Earthquakes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that earthquake spatial and temporal distributions can be effectively modeled using Levy flights, capturing their anomalous diffusion behavior in seismic regions.

Contribution

It introduces Levy flights as a novel framework for describing earthquake distributions, supported by analysis of extensive seismic data from 1985 to 1994.

Findings

Earthquake distributions follow Levy flight patterns

Seismic data exhibit subdiffusive anomalous diffusion

Levy distribution functions fit earthquake data well

Abstract

Levy flights representation is proposed to describe earthquake characteristics like the distribution of waiting times and position of hypocenters in a seismic region. Over 7500 microearthquakes and earthquakes from 1985 to 1994 were analyzed to test that its spatial and temporal distributions are such that can be described by a Levy flight with anomalous diffusion (in this case in a subdiffusive regime). Earthquake behavior is well described through Levy flights and Levy distribution functions such as results show.