PRESENCE OF CHAOS IN A SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICAL SYSTEM

We investigate a one-dimensional chain of blocks and springs driven on a surface with friction. We find that, as the number of blocks N incr eases, the system has a power law dependence on the size of slipping e vents, characteristic of self-organized criticality. The largest Liapu nov exponent also increases with increasing N, approaching an asymptot ic value at large N. Thus, contrary to a previous conjecture [P. Bah a nd C. Tang, J. Geophys. Res. B 94, 15 635 (1989)], strong chaos (posit ive Liapunov exponent) and self-organized criticality can coexist.