1/f(beta) fluctuations and self-similarity in earthquake dynamics: observational evidences in southern Italy

Recently, it has been determined that many statistical features of earthquakes are scale-invariant with universal values for exponents. The analysis of scaling laws has led to the development of a wide variety of physical models of seismogenesis, involving nonlinear dynamics, and it can be used to better characterize the seismicity pattern. In this work, the presence of scale-invariance properties in the seismicity of a selected area of the Southern Appennine chain is revealed. 1/f(beta) fluctuations are detected from the analysis of earthquake sequences using the counting statistics and, at the spatial scale, a self-similar structure in the epicentre aggregate is determined by the estimation of its fractal dimension. Finally, correlations between temporal beta-exponent, fractal dimension and b-value variations are described.