SCEC Award Number 14185 View PDF
Proposal Category Workshop Proposal
Proposal Title Post-Earthquake Rapid Scientific Response Workshop
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Michael Oskin University of California, Davis
Other Participants Greg Beroza, Kate Scharer, Elizabeth Cochran, Rowena Lohman, Yuri Fialko
SCEC Priorities 1b, 2b, 1e SCEC Groups CS, Geodesy, Seismology
Report Due Date 10/07/2014 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 This document summarizes planning efforts for the SCEC scientific response to the next major earthquake in southern California. It is the outcome of the Post-Earthquake Rapid Scientific Response Workshop held on September 7, 2014, just prior to the SCEC annual meeting in Palm Springs, California. There were approximately 100 workshop attendees. Presenters focused on the science questions motivating post-earthquake response, data-gathering and instrument deployment, inputs from other disciplines, and timeframes for response activities. Presenters were also asked to consider how response would adjust to three example earthquake events: A M~7 rural event, much like the large earthquakes that have occurred in southern California during the lifetime of SCEC, a San Andreas event similar to the 1812 or 1857 ruptures, and an urban earthquake with surface rupture. The occurrence of the M6.0 South Napa earthquake two weeks prior to the workshop introduced a fourth, quasi-real time case study that was much discussed during the workshop.
Intellectual Merit Rapid scientific response to strong (M≥6), damaging earthquakes, especially in southern California, is central to the mission of SCEC. Each such event presents valuable opportunities to improve physics-based understanding of earthquake phenomena. Response efforts mobilize the core earth-science disciplines of SCEC--seismology, geodesy, and geology--to gather and preserve ephemeral earthquake data. These efforts must occur as quickly as possible, while aftershocks, transient motions, and surface rupture are strongest and best expressed. Thus earthquake response demands experimental design in real time, with information shared freely and efficiently between disciplines, and guided by hypotheses from the cutting edge of earthquake science.
SCEC serves three roles that guide a more effective rapid scientific response to earthquakes: (1) Intellectual leadership spanning the breadth of earthquake system science. (2) Coordination of the response of the earthquake science community. (3) Communication of knowledge to the world at large.
Broader Impacts Rapid scientific response to strong (M≥6), damaging earthquakes, especially in southern California, is central to the mission of SCEC.
Exemplary Figure No figures in this report.
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