Avalanche statistics of driven granular slides in a miniature mound

Abstract

We examine avalanche statistics of rain‐ and vibration‐driven granular slides in miniature sand mounds. A crossover from power‐law to non power‐law avalanche‐size statistics is demonstrated as a generic driving rate ν is increased. For slowly‐driven mounds, the tail of the avalanche‐size distribution is a power‐law with exponent −1.97 ± 0.31, reasonably close to a value previously reported for landslide volumes. The interevent occurrence times are also analyzed for slowly‐driven mounds; its distribution exhibits a power‐law with exponent −2.670 ± 0.001.