SCEC Community Research

SCEC coordinates fundamental research on earthquake processes using Southern California as its main natural laboratory. Currently, over 1000 earthquake professionals are participating in SCEC projects. SCEC’s long-range science vision is to develop dynamical models of earthquake processes that are comprehensive, integrative, verified, predictive, and validated against observations. The science goal of the SCEC core program is to provide new concepts that can improve the predictability of the earthquake system models, new data for testing the models, and a better understanding of model uncertainties.

SCEC Science Planning Committee

DOWNLOAD 2024 RFP

SCEC accepted proposals responding to the 2024 Science Plan in November 2023. See the Science Plan page for more details.

Recent Publications

Uncertainty in distinct element modeling of freestanding structures considering stiffness parameters Saifullah, M., & Wittich, C.

Hematite frictional behavior and He loss from comminution during deformation experiments at slow slip rates DiMonte, A. A., Ault, A. K., Hirth, G., & Meyers, C.

Little Ice Age flood events recorded in sag pond sediments in the Carrizo Plains National Monument, CA. Kirby, M. E., Hippard, S. K., Martinez, L. N., Serrato, D., Carlin, J., Bonuso, N., Akciz, S. O., & Novich, C.

The USGS 2023 Conterminous U.S. Time‐Independent Earthquake Rupture Forecast Field, E. H., Milner, K. R., Hatem, A., Powers, P. M., Pollitz, F. F., Llenos, A. L., Zeng, Y., Johnson, K. M., Shaw, B. E., McPhillips, D., Thompson, J., Shumway, A. M., Michael, A. J., Shen, Z., Evans, E. L., Hearn, E. H., Mueller, C. S., Frankel, A., Petersen, M. D., DuRoss, C. B., Briggs, R., Page, M. T., Rubinstein, J. L., & Herrick, J.

The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications Petersen, M. D., Shumway, A. M., Powers, P. M., Field, E. H., Moschetti, M. P., Jaiswal, K. S., Milner, K. R., Rezaeian, S., Frankel, A., Llenos, A. L., Michael, A. J., Altekruse, J., Ahdi, S. K., Withers, K. B., Mueller, C. S., Zeng, Y., Chase, R., Salditch, L., Luco, N., Rukstales, K. S., Herrick, J. A., Girot, D. L., Aagaard, B. T., Bender, A. M., Blanpied, M. L., Briggs, R., Boyd, O. S., Clayton, B. S., DuRoss, C. B., Evans, E. L., Haeussler, P., Hatem, A., Haynie, K. L., Hearn, E. H., Johnson, K. M., Kortum, Z. A., Kwong, N. S., Makdisi, A. J., Mason, B., McNamara, D., McPhillips, D., Okubo, P., Page, M. T., Pollitz, F. F., Rubinstein, J. L., Shaw, B. E., Shen, Z., Shiro, B., Smith, J. A., Stephenson, W. J., Thompson, E. M., Thompson Jobe, J. A., Wirth, E., & Witter, R. C.

SCEC SOFTWARE

The SCEC software landing page provides an overview of software and websites developed by SCEC staff and the larger SCEC community.

The SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP) is a software system that can generate 0-20+ Hz seismograms for historical and scenario earthquakes in California, Eastern North America, and Japan using several alternative computational methods.

The CyberShake computational platform is an integrated collection of scientific software and middleware that performs 3D physics-based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA)

OpenSHA is an open-source, Java-based platform for conducting Seismic Hazard Analysis (SHA).

PyCSEP tools help earthquake forecast model developers evaluate their forecasts and provide the machinery to implement experiments within CSEP testing centers.

The Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software framework provides access to detailed information about earth properties, namely P- and S-wave velocities and density, on regional scales.

Early Career RESEARCHER SUPPORT

SCEC Research Travel Awards
Research travel awards support students to present their research at scientific conferences.

Research Mentoring Workshops
Mentoring workshops for enhancing mentoring skills and relationships.

SCEC/SURE Internship
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) interns are paired one-on-one with a SCEC scientist at that researcher's institution or field site, to work within that scientist's field of specialty.

SCEC/SOURCES Internship
Supported Opportunities for Undergraduates and Researchers to Collaborate on Earthquake Science (SOURCES) interns are remotely-mentored and gain a valuable research experience regardless of geographic location or availability of local researchers.

Workshops

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Dynamic Rupture TAG 2022 Workshop – Investigating New Ideas in Earthquake Source Mechanics, January 12, 2023

SCEC Workshop on Advancing Simulations of Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip, November 18, 2022

SCEC CFM5.3 Evaluation Workshop, April 7, 2022

SCEC Workshop on Coordinating Post-Earthquake Field Data Collection, January 12 & 14, 2022

SCEC Workshop on Dynamic Rupture and Stress Conditions, December 3, 2021

2021 SCEC Community Geodetic Model Workshop, November 9-10, 2021

SCEC Community Workshop: Stress Drop Validation—Planning and Preliminary Results, November 4, 2021

SCEC Workshop on Advancing Simulations of Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip, November 2, 2021

See more workshops...

Project Pages

The SCEC Geologic Slip Rate Database comprises a collection of geologic slip rate estimates for faults in California, Nevada, and a small portion of northernmost Mexico.

The Community Fault Model (CFM) is an object-oriented three-dimensional geometric representation of more than 820 fault objects in southern California and adjacent offshore basins.

Community Geodetic Model (CGM) includes time series and velocities from both GPS and InSAR based observations as well as consensus strain rate products.

Community Rheology Model (CRM) is a rheological description of the southern California lithosphere, based on an ongoing synthesis of geophysical and geological data.

The goal of the Community Stress Model (CSM) is to provide the SCEC community with a suite of models and constraints on the stress and stressing rate in the southern California lithosphere.

The Community Velocity Model (CVM) is composed of detailed basin velocity descriptions that are based on tens of thousands of direct velocity measurements.

Community Thermal Model (CTM) provides average 1D steady-state geotherms from the surface to 100 km for 13 distinct Heat Flow Regions (HFR).

The Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) supports an international effort to conduct and rigorously evaluate earthquake forecasting experiments.

The SCEC Collaboratory for Interseismic Simulation and Modeling (CISM) provides a unique environment for developing large-scale numerical models that can simulate sequences of fault ruptures and the seismic shaking they produce.

SCEC Committee for Utilization of Ground Motions Simulations (UGMS) develops long-period response spectral acceleration maps for inclusion in National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), and in building codes.

The SCEC Community Stress Drop Validation Study is a coordinated community effort to develop better methods for estimating stress drop and determining its dependency on earthquake and material heterogeneities.

Research Highlights

	New SCEC/USGS Community Stress Drop Validation Study Launched by Rachel Abercrombie and Annemarie Baltay
	5 Powerful Lessons From SCEC’s Exceptional Research Mentors, by Gabriela Noriega
	Community Fault Model v5.3 Released with Updated Web Tools for Improved Access by Scott Marshall, Andreas Plesch, John Shaw, Craig Nicholson, et al.