Updates to the SCEC Community Fault Model (CFM), and to web-based tools, and plans for its peer review and version 6.0

Andreas Plesch, Scott T. Marshall, Ana Luiza Nicolae, John H. Shaw, Philip J. Maechling, & Mei-Hui Su

Published August 16, 2021, SCEC Contribution #11518, 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #005 (PDF)

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We present a series of enhancements to the Community Fault Model (CFM) and the web-based tools that help to support its use in a wide range of SCEC activities. The CFM is one of the most established SCEC community models, and is now accessed through a website that enables users to search the fault database and visualize fault representations with interactive map and 3D views. The current model (CFM 5.3) includes 440 faults in southern California, as well as suites of alternative representations for faults that have uncertain geometries.

This past year, we added several new fault representations to the CFM defined by relocated earthquake catalogs, machine-learning enabled catalogs, focal mechanism, and surface geology (e.g., Nicholson et al., 2021; Hauksson et al., 2020; Ross et al., 2019; Plesch et al., 2019). In addition, we enhanced existing fault representations using these datasets, with an emphasis on defining faults in the 2019 Ridgecrest epicentral zone, Salton Sea, Santa Monica Bay, and the Santa Barbara Channel. Several of these fault representations were developed using new objective, constraint-based interpolations method (Reisner et al., 2017). In collaboration with SCEC IT, we also made a series of enhancements to the web-based tools that help support the CFM including the ability to visualize earthquake catalogs in 2D and 3D.

We are planning to conduct a formal peer-review of the CFM to establish the preferred fault representations that will comprise CFM version 6.0. To facilitate this review, we have developed a new web-based survey tool that, in conjunction with the 3D viewer, will enable participants to evaluate and rank CFM alternatives. We will introduce these web-based evaluation tools and outline the peer review process at an upcoming virtual workshop.

Key Words
faulting, 3d, tectonics, seismic sources, web

Citation
Plesch, A., Marshall, S. T., Nicolae, A., Shaw, J. H., Maechling, P. J., & Su, M. (2021, 08). Updates to the SCEC Community Fault Model (CFM), and to web-based tools, and plans for its peer review and version 6.0. Poster Presentation at 2021 SCEC Annual Meeting.


Related Projects & Working Groups
SCEC Community Models (CXM)