Testing the critical exponent in the relation between stress drop of earthquake and lead time of seismic electric signal

Abstract. The application of new data in the power law relation between the stress drop of the earthquake and the lead time of the precursory seismic electric signal led to an exponent which falls in the range of the values of critical exponents for fracture and it is in excellent agreement with a previous one found by (Dologlou, 2012). In addition, this exponent is very close to the one reported by Varotsos and Alexopoulos (1984a), which interconnects the amplitude of the precursory seismic electric signals (SES) and the magnitude of the impending earthquake. Hence, the hypothesis that underlying dynamic processes evolving to criticality prevail in the pre-focal area when the SES is emitted is significantly supported.