Stairway to Self-Organized Criticality: SOC on a Slope using Relative Critical Heights

Abstract

A computational model of loose snow avalanches was studied as an example of Self-Organized Criticality (SOC). The distribution of the magnitudes of avalanches was measured for a stair-stepped system with various critical relative differences and system slopes. Depending on the configuration, the model showed either power law behaviors or a Gaussian distribution. For configurations that displayed power laws, the slope of the power law was dependent on the configuration of the system.