Recurrence time statistics of landslide events simulated by a cellular automaton model

The recurrence time statistics of a cellular automaton modelling landslide events is analyzed by performing a numerical analysis in the parameter space and estimating Fano factor behaviors. Simulation results are qualitatively compared with those from a recent analysis performed by Witt et al.(Earth Surf. Process. Landforms, 35, 1138, 2010) for the first complete databases of landslide occurrences over a period as large as fifty years. From the comparison with the extensive landslide data set, the numerical analysis suggests that statistics of such landslide data seem to be described by a crossover region between a correlated regime and an uncorrelated regime, where recurrence time distributions are characterized by power-law and Weibull behaviors for short and long return times, respectively. Finally, in such a region of the parameter space, clear indications of temporal correlations and clustering by the Fano factor behaviors support, at least in part, the analysis performed by Witt et al. (2010).