SCEC Dynamic Rupture Exercises TPV36 and TPV37: A Shallowly Dipping Fault Reaching Earth’s Surface

Ruth A. Harris, Michael J. Barall, Dunyu Liu, Benchun Duan, Fabian Kutschera, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, David Schneller, Duo Li, Shuo Ma, Wenqiang Zhang, Yajing Liu, Xiaofei Chen, Di Deng, Suli YAO, Hongfeng Yang, Abdullah Al Imran, & Kenneth Duru

Submitted September 7, 2025, SCEC Contribution #14672, 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #TBD

The SCEC-USGS Dynamic Rupture Technical Activity Group is an international group of researchers who use the computational method of dynamic (or spontaneous) rupture to simulate earthquake source behavior. We range from early career to more senior scientists, all with the goal of providing a better understanding of earthquakes and their hazard. Over the past 20 years our group has conducted exercises to test our codes and convened workshops to share our knowledge and to learn from other researchers and related groups both within and outside SCEC. Our most recent workshop was convened in November 2024. In preparation for the workshop, dynamic rupture modelers were tasked with simulating the case of earthquake rupture nucleating and then propagating on a planar, shallowly-dipping (15-degree dip) thrust fault reaching Earth’s surface. Two exercises were constructed that have applications to subduction zone settings and to continental overthrusts. In one exercise (The Problem, Version 36, TPV36), the rupture reaches Earth’s surface; in the other exercise (TPV37), increased frictional cohesion prevents the rupture from reaching Earth’s surface. The modelers were instructed to provide output files, including seismograms on and off the fault, and plots of the fault’s final slip. The results from different codes did not all agree perfectly (as they are not expected to), but the matches were quite reasonable. This demonstrates that the codes were able to successfully simulate the complex interactions of sustained rupture propagation occurring very close to Earth’s surface.

Key Words
dynamic rupture, earthquakes, shallowly dipping thrust fault, overthrusts, subduction zones, code comparison

Citation
Harris, R. A., Barall, M. J., Liu, D., Duan, B., Kutschera, F., Gabriel, A., Schneller, D., Li, D., Ma, S., Zhang, W., Liu, Y., Chen, X., Deng, D., YAO, S., Yang, H., Imran, A., & Duru, K. (2025, 09). SCEC Dynamic Rupture Exercises TPV36 and TPV37: A Shallowly Dipping Fault Reaching Earth’s Surface. Poster Presentation at 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Fault and Rupture Mechanics (FARM)