Actively Funded Research
$1,824,574.00
(sorted by start date)
Characterization of Pulverized Granitoids in the Little Rock Core Along the San Andreas Fault Thomas Rockwell
ARRA: IRES: U.S. - New Zealand Collaboration on Applied Geothermal Exploration and Assessment George Jiracek
Dynamic Rupture Modeling of M6.5 Normal Faulting Scenarios and Simulation of Strong Ground Motion Shuo Ma
A Long Record of Earthquakes with Timing Displacements for the Dead Sea Transform Fault: A Test of Earthquake Recurrence Models Thomas Rockwell
Collaborative Research: A High-resolution, Multi-isotopic Study of Upper Mantle Heterogeneity Beneath the Southeast Indian Ridge Barry Hanan
Repeatability, Accuracy, and Precision of Surface Slip Measurements from High-resolution Topographic Data: Collaborative Research with Arizona State University and San Diego State University Thomas Rockwell
Validation of Finite Fault Simulations Using Broadband Synthetics Based on Low-Frequency Dynamic Rupture Propagation and High-Frequency Scattering Green's Kim Olsen
Earthquake Rupture Simulations: Thermo-mechanical Models, and Validation with Strong Motion Data Steven Day
Fully Nonlinear Modeling of Strong Ground Motion From M7.0 Earthquakes on the Salt Lake City Segment of the Wasatch Fault, Utah: Request for Supplemental Funding Kim Olsen
Collaborative Research: Paleoseismology of the Borrego and Pescadores faults in Northern Baja California: Characterizing the Past Rupture History of a Complex Transtentional Fault Zone Thomas Rockwell
Characterization of Earthquake Slip Distribution on the Northern Coyote Creek Strand of the San Jacinto Fault Using LiDAR and Field Mapping Thomas Rockwell
Exploring the Probability of Fault-to-Fault Jumps During Earthquake Ruptures by Using Three- Dimensional Dynamic Simulations Shuo Ma
Rupture Dynamics, Validation of the Numerical Simulation Method Shuo Ma
Correlation of Peak Dynamic and Static Coulomb Failure Stress with Seismicity Rate Change after the M7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah Earthquake SCEC#11140 Kim Olsen
Rupture and Ground Motions Near an Extensional Stepover on the San Jacinto Fault with Validation from Precariously Balanced Rocks: Collaborative Research with UC Riverside and San Diego State University Kim Olsen
Extraction of Station-to-Station Green's Functions Using Seismic Coda in Southern California Shuo Ma
The Role of Sediments in Rupture Dynamics of Tsunami Earthquakes and Tsunami Generation Shuo Ma
Development of a Holocene Earthquake Record for the Northern San Jacinto Fault Zone From a New Paleoseismic site at Mystic Lake: Collaborative Research with CSU Long Beach, SDSU, and CSU San Bernardino Thomas Rockwell
Geoinformatics: A Petascale Cyberfacility for Physics-based Seismic Hazard Analysis (PetaSHA-3) Kim Olsen & Steven Day
Collaborative Research: Magnetic Evolution of Kilauea Volcano: Past, Present and Future Aaron Pietruszka
Exploring the Likelihood of Earthquake Ruptures on the San Andreas Fault Breaking through the San Gorgonio Pass Area by Using Dynamic Rupture Simulations and the Community Fault Model Shuo Ma
Collaborative Research: Structural Architecture and Evolutionary Plate-Boundary Processes Along the San Jacinto Fault Zone Thomas Rockwell & Gary Girty
Potential Impact and Mitigation Strategies for Overlap of L-Band, 4th -generation Wireless and INMARSAT BGANs in the San Diego Backcountry Eric Frost
Fault and Earthquake System Dynamics Steven Day & Kim Olsen
Regional Energy Innovation and Commercialization John Crockett
Student Research
Paleodepth reconstruction through the Pennsylvanian Finis Shale of Texas: Insights from brachiopod oxygen isotopes Leah Carrigan
The West Bullion-Mesquite Lake Fault Step-Over: Assessment and Comparison With Faults of the Eastern California Shear Zone, Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Corps Base, California Kaitlin Wessel
Saprock: A long term recorder of ground shaking, Peninsular Ranges, southern California Marck Maroun
Integrating Wells and 3D Seismic Data to Delineate the Sandstone Reservoir Distribution of the Talang Akar Formation, South Sumatra Basin, Indonesia Robet Widodo
Assessing mass change during the transformation of K-feldspar poor tonalitic corestone to saprock: Implications for the general model of the weathering of granitoids Zack Rayburn
Research Highlight
SCEC's "M8" earthquake simulation breaks computational records, promises faster and more detailed models of future earthquakes
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers presented the world’s most advanced earthquake shaking simulation at the Supercomputing 2010 (SC10) conference this week in New Orleans. The research was selected as a finalist for the Gordon Bell Prize, awarded at the annual conference for outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications.
The “M8” simulation models how the ground will shake in a magnitude 8.0 earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault. The simulation covers a larger area, in greater detail, than previously possible. Perhaps most importantly, the development of the M8 simulation advances the state-of-the-art in terms of the speed and efficiency at which such calculations can be performed.
The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at the University of Southern California (USC) was the lead coordinator in the project. San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) researchers provided the high-performance computing and scientific visualization expertise for the simulation. Scientific details of the earthquake were developed by scientists at San Diego State University (SDSU). Ohio State University (OSU) researchers were also part of the collaborative effort to improve the efficiency of the software involved.
“The scientific results of this massive simulation are very interesting, and its level of detail has allowed us to observe things that we were not able to see in the past,” said Kim Olsen, professor of geological sciences at SDSU, and lead seismologist of the study. Olsen noted that high-rise buildings are more susceptible to the low-frequency, or a roller-coaster-like motion, while smaller structures usually suffer more damage from the higher-frequency shaking, which feels more like a series of sudden jolts.
“The problem we face in earthquake science is that we actually don’t have recordings of very large earthquakes needed to predict the ground motions of the next one,” Jordan said. The best option is then to create scenarios of such earthquakes based on as many details of the earth and the physics involved as possible, and for a broader a range of frequencies, as was done in the M8 simulation. The results are both broadly useful data as well basic research insights into earthquake processes.
“Earthquakes have a lot of variability,” Jordan said. “M8 is one particular guess of what an earthquake would look like. We are developing the technologies and resources to model many such scenarios.” more...
INVESTIGATORS Kim Olsen (SDSU), Yifeng Cui (SDSC), Philip Maechling (SCEC)
Frank L. Forcino, Emily S. Stafford, Jared J. Warner, Amelinda E. Webb, Lindsey R. Leighton, Chris L. Schneider, Tova S. Michlin, Lauren M. Palazzolo, Jared R. Morrow, And Stephen A. Schellenberg Effects Of Data Categorization On Paleocommunity Analysis: A Case Study From The Pennsylvanian Finis Shale Of Texas, Palaios, Mar 2010; 25: 144 - 157.
Reagan, M. K., et al. (Barry Hanan) (2010), Fore-arc basalts and subduction initiation in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana system, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 11, Q03X12, doi:10.1029/2009GC002871.
Geoffrey P. Ely, Steven M. Day, and Jean-Bernard Minster Dynamic rupture models for the southern San Andreas Fault Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (February 2010), 100(1):131-150
Ford, H. L., S. A. Schellenberg, B. J. Becker, D. L. Deutschman, K. A. Dyck, and P. L. Koch (2010), Evaluating the skeletal
chemistry of Mytilus californianus as a temperature proxy: Effects of microenvironment and ontogeny, Paleoceanography, 25, PA1203,
doi:10.1029/2008PA001677.
Diane I. Doser, Kim B. Olsen, Fred F. Pollitz, Ross S. Stein, and Shinji Toda The 1911 M6.6 Calaveras Earthquake: Source Parameters and the Role of Static, Viscoelastic, and Dynamic Coulomb Stress Changes Imparted by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Jun 2009; 99: 1746 - 1759.
