  A novel method for glassy landscape exploration is presented which utilizes a
time series of energy values collected during an isothermal relaxation after a
thermal quench. A sub-series of increasingly rare events, or quakes, which are
connected to an irreversible release of energy from the system, is used to
identify entry and exit times for landscape valleys. The landscape of three
dimensional spin glasses is studied from this angle for a number of lattice
sizes and for a range of low temperatures. A simple picture emerges regarding
the temperature and size dependence of (1) the energy barriers separating the
valleys, (2) the lowest energy minimum within a valley, and (3) the distance
between the configurations belonging to the lowest minima in neighboring
valleys. The configuration changes following the quakes are analyzed in terms
of connected clusters of flipped spins, and the size distribution of these
clusters is presented.
