Graph (IMAGE) Aalto University Caption Earthquakes (the picture shows the San Andreas fault) and snow avalanches (an avalanche in Mount Everest shown on lower left corner) are examples of systems exhibiting bursty avalanche dynamics. Individual bursts have a highly irregular, complex structure (upper left corner). However, they have also a typical, well-defined average shape which depends on certain fundamental properties of the system, i.e. its universality class in the language of physics (upper right corner). Credit Aalto University Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.