We investigate the dynamics of a modified Burridge-Knopoff model by
introducing a dissipative term to mimic the bursts of acoustic emission (AE)
from rock samples. The model explains many features of the statistics of AE
signals observed in experiments such as the crossover in the exponent value
from relatively small amplitude AE signals to larger regime, and their
dependence on the pulling speed. Significantly, we find that the cumulative
energy dissipated identified with acoustic emission can be used to predict a
major slip event. We also find a data collapse of the acoustic activity for
several major slip events describable by a universal stretched exponential with
corrections in terms of time-to-failure.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Final version with minor change