Scaling and universality in rock fracture

We present a detailed statistical analysis of acoustic emission time series from laboratory rock fracture obtained from different experiments on different materials including acoustic emission controlled triaxial fracture and punch-through tests. In all considered cases, the waiting time distribution can be described by a unique scaling function indicating its universality. This scaling function is even indistinguishable from that for earthquakes suggesting its general validity for fracture processes independent of time, space, and magnitude scales.