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Entropy of earthquakes: application to Vrancea earthquakes

  • Research Article - Solid Earth Sciences
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Abstract

The entropy of earthquakes is derived by using the Gutenberg–Richter statistical distributions. Both canonical and microcanonical earthquake distributions are given, and Einstein’s fluctuation formula is deduced for earthquakes. The seismic activity of Vrancea in the period 1980–2019 is analyzed, for earthquakes with magnitude greater than two, and the results are compared with the theoretical results. It is shown that the parameter of the magnitude distribution exhibits a tendency of increasing with time, due to the accumulation of small-magnitude earthquakes, interrupted from time to time by ruptures towards smaller values, caused by earthquakes with greater magnitudes. These variations do not obey the normal distribution of the fluctuations. The (small) time variations of the distribution parameter provide a measure of the departure of the seismic activity from an equilibrium process. For Vrancea, these deviations are very small (up to 1% per year).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the colleagues in the Institute of Earth’s Physics, Magurele-Bucharest, for many enlightening discussions, and to the anonymous Reviewers for thoughtful suggestions. This work was partially carried out within the Program Nucleu 2019, funded by Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, Research Grant #PN19-08-01-02/2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Earth’s Physics, PO Box MG-6, Magurele-Bucharest, Romania

    B. F. Apostol

  2. Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, PO Box MG-35, Magurele-Bucharest, Romania

    L. C. Cune

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  1. B. F. Apostol
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  2. L. C. Cune
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Correspondence to B. F. Apostol.

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Communicated by Ramon Zuñiga, Ph.D. (CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF).

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Apostol, B.F., Cune, L.C. Entropy of earthquakes: application to Vrancea earthquakes. Acta Geophys. 69, 395–404 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-021-00550-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-021-00550-4

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