Geosystemics, entropy and criticality of earthquakes: a vision of our planet and a key of access

Abstract

Earth is a system of interconnected systems, whose complexity is far from being fully understood by a reductionist approach alone. In this chapter we introduce the concept of geosystemics and the use of the entropy to characterize some aspects of the phenomena under study. We will show how entropy and criticality of the system are central to better understand the most important general features of earthquakes. We will analyze two recent seismic sequences culminated with a main-shock (2009 L’Aquila and 2012 Emilia, both in Italy) to show the potential of this approach and to understand some important characteristics of the seismicity under scrutiny.