Avalanche Statistics of Driven Granular Slides in a Miniature Mound

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We examine avalanche statistics of rain- and vibration-driven granular slides in miniature sand mounds. A crossover from power-law to non power-law avalanche-size statistics is demonstrated as a generic driving rate ν is increased. For slowly-driven mounds, the tail of the avalanche-size distribution is a power-law with exponent -1.97± 0.31, reasonably close to the value previously reported for landslide volumes. The interevent occurrence times are also analyzed for slowly-driven mounds; its distribution exhibits a power-law with exponent -2.670± 0.001.