Access to California Velocity Models Using SCEC UCVM v25.7

Mei-Hui Su, Philip J. Maechling, Scott T. Marshall, Clifford H. Thurber, Camilo Ignacio Pinilla Ramos, Claire Doody, Yehuda Ben-Zion, & Hongjian Fang

Submitted September 7, 2025, SCEC Contribution #14945, 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #TBD

SCEC’s Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software v25.7 now provides the research community with access to a broad collection of statewide California seismic velocity models. The SCEC UCVM is a software framework for accessing, comparing, and using community seismic velocity models in ground motion modeling and wave propagation simulations. UCVM v25.7 release includes new CVMs for California and the Western U.S., many of which have not previously been distributed through UCVM. These models reflect recent scientific work by research groups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), USGS, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, SCEC, and other organizations. Models now accessible through UCVM include (1) the California-Nevada Adjoint Simulations (CANVAS) model, an adjoint waveform tomography model of the crust and uppermost mantle of the states of California and Nevada, (2) the UW Statewide California three-dimensional tomographic model of the P wave velocity (Vp) structure developed by researchers at UW, (3) the UW San Fransico Bay regional model that describes 3D seismic P- and S-wave velocities from a tomographic inversion for the crustal structure developed by researchers at UW, (4) the USGS San Francisco Bay Region model for Northern California velocity model that includes the detailed San Francisco Bay Region model v21.1 and the regional USGS CenCalVM v0.8.3 model, and (5) a San Jacinto Fault Zone model developed using double-difference seismic tomography methods. In addition, this release includes updated support for widely used models including southern California models CVM-S4, CVM-S4.26, CVM-S4.26.M01, CVM-H (and its stand-alone basins), the offshore ALBACORE Southern California model, Salton Sea Imaging Project (SSIP) models for Coachella and Imperial Valleys, Central California CCA-06, a Utah Wasatch Front model, and three region-specific 1D California velocity models. These models can now be queried through UCVM and compared using a common interface, making cross-model evaluation and multi-model simulations more accessible. Along with the addition of new models, this version of UCVM implements improved software best practices including a more modular distribution, continuous integration testing implemented using GitHub Actions, distribution in Docker images, and integration with the SCEC CVM Web Explorer.

Key Words
velocity model

Citation
Su, M., Maechling, P. J., Marshall, S. T., Thurber, C. H., Pinilla Ramos, C., Doody, C., Ben-Zion, Y., & Fang, H. (2025, 09). Access to California Velocity Models Using SCEC UCVM v25.7. Poster Presentation at 2025 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Community Earth Models (CEM)