Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net 1023-5809 1607-7946 9 5/6 2002 10.5194/npg-9-513-2002 http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/9/513/2002/ http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/9/513/2002/npg-9-513-2002.html http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/9/513/2002/npg-9-513-2002.pdf 513 519 0000-00-00 A minimalist model of characteristic earthquakes M. Vázquez-Prada Á. González J. B. Gómez A. F. Pacheco Faculty of Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain In a spirit akin to the sandpile model of self-organized criticality, we present a simple statistical model of the cellular-automaton type which simulates the role of an asperity in the dynamics of a one-dimensional fault. This model produces an earthquake spectrum similar to the characteristic-earthquake behaviour of some seismic faults. This model, that has no parameter, is amenable to an algebraic description as a Markov Chain. This possibility illuminates some important results, obtained by Monte Carlo simulations, such as the earthquake size-frequency relation and the recurrence time of the characteristic earthquake.