Self-organized criticality in a spring-block earthquake model — power-law magnitude distribution emerges spontaneously.
Burridge-Knopoff spring-block model: blocks coupled by springs are slowly driven. When stress exceeds static friction an avalanche (earthquake) propagates. The Gutenberg-Richter law log N = a − bM emerges with b ≈ 1, a hallmark of self-organized criticality (SOC).