SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS FOR LARGE AND SMALL EARTHQUAKES

Small and large earthquakes obey different scaling laws and inhabit di stinct populations, both characterized by power laws with different, e xponents, When considering earthquakes on a single fault or fault segm ent, the one large earthquake that occurs during a seismic cycle is di scontinuous with the population of small earthquakes. Here it is shown that these two observations, together with the scaring laws, are self -consistent when groper account is taken of the size distribution of f aults.