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Laboratory experiments made by UB researchers reproduce the statistical behavior of earthquakes

By 20 de February de 2013November 18th, 2020No Comments
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UB researchers who carried out the study. Source UB.
 20.02.2013

Laboratory experiments made by UB researchers reproduce the statistical behavior of earthquakes

A study led by researchers from the University of Barcelona, and published on the journal Physical Review Letters, has carried out experiments with a material loaded under compression that reproduces the four main statistical laws of seismicity: the Gutenberg-Ritcher law, the Omori's law, the distribution of waiting times between consecutive events and the productivity law. The material has been analyzed by means of a device developed by the Materials Technological Unit of the Scientific and Technological Centers of the UB, located at the Barcelona Science Park.


Mechanical failure of materials is a complex phenomenon underlying many accidents and natural disasters ranging from the fracture of small devices to earthquakes. Despite the vast separation of spatial, temporal, energy, and strain-rate scales, and the differences in geometry, it has been proposed that laboratory experiments on brittle fracture in heterogeneous materials, mainly using rocks, can be a model for earthquake occurrence but results were not completely reliable, as they do not reproduce all the properties of earthquakes.

The researcher Eduard Vives, from the Faculty of Physics of the UB, led the research in which collaborated several researchers from the Faculty —located at the BKC—, Xavier Illa, Antoni Planes and Jordi Baró (the main author), as well as Álvaro Corral, from the Centre for Mathematical Research (CERCA – Government of Catalonia), and researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Viena and the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi (Mexico).