SCEC Award Number 13002 View PDF
Proposal Category Workshop Proposal
Proposal Title Community Stress Model (CSM) Workshop
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Jeanne Hardebeck United States Geological Survey Brad Aagaard United States Geological Survey Thorsten Becker University of Southern California David Sandwell University of California, San Diego Bruce Shaw Columbia University John Shaw Harvard University
Other Participants proposed workshop invitee list given in proposal
SCEC Priorities 2, 1, 3 SCEC Groups SDOT, FARM, Geodesy
Report Due Date 06/28/2013 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 Crustal stress is a fundamental quantity that is relevant to many aspects of the earthquake problem. SCEC4 has committed to the development of the Community Stress Model (CSM) to provide the SCEC community with better constraints on the stress field. The first step of the CSM project has been to attempt to compile and compare all of the existing relevant data and models held by the SCEC community. A call went out for contribution of data and models, and to date 16 models have been submitted, primarily models of stress or stressing rate in the upper crust. Unfortunately, not much data has been submitted. At the October 2012 CSM Workshop we compared the submitted models, and discovered an encouraging agreement between models on the stress orientations throughout southern California, and on the stressing rate and its orientation along the major faults of the San Andreas system. Since that workshop, we have begun developing a website for collaboration, where the submitted models can be accessed, compared, and validated against data. At this workshop, held May 29-30 in Menlo Park, we discussed a range of topics, focusing on geodetic-based stressing rate models, geodynamic models, and data and validation.
Intellectual Merit Crustal stress is a fundamental quantity that is relevant to many aspects of the earthquake problem. The intended CSM end-product, a model or suite of models for the 4D stress tensor in the California lithosphere, will be useful for numerous SCEC core science issues. These include a better understanding of how faults are loaded, redistribute strain via earthquakes, and evolve over time. There is a range of potential uses for the CSM, including seismic hazard estimates, crustal seismicity studies, dynamic earthquake rupture models and earthquake simulators. Moreover, even the discussions of the issues involved in the construction of a CSM (such as the completeness of physical models, noise, and uncertainties) are expected to lead to scientific progress.
Broader Impacts One of the major goals of this project is to produce infrastructure for research and education in the form of online collaborative tools that researchers and students can use to access, plot, compare, and combine stress models and data.
Exemplary Figure no figures