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Fractal Plate Tectonics
Author(s) -
Sornette Didier,
Pisarenko Vladilen
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl015043
Subject(s) - geology , fractal , plate tectonics , tectonics , geophysics , seismology , mathematics , mathematical analysis
We analyze in details the statistical significance of the claim by Bird [2002] of a power law distribution of plate areas covering the Earth and confirm that the power law with exponent 0.25 ± 0.05 is the most robust and parsimonious model for all plates, including the very largest plates, when taking into account the constraint that the plates areas must sum up to 4 π steradians. We propose a general class of fragmentation models that rationalize this observation and discuss the implications for the Earth dynamics and the general self‐organization of tectonic deformations at multiple scales.