SCEC Award Number 24067 View PDF
Proposal Category Community Workshop
Proposal Title Two 2024 Workshops for the Community Stress Drop Validation Project using the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Dataset
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Annemarie Baltay United States Geological Survey Rachel Abercrombie Boston University
SCEC Milestones C1,2,3-1, D1-1 SCEC Groups Seismology, FARM, SDOT
Report Due Date 03/15/2025 Date Report Submitted 03/19/2025
Project Abstract
 The September 8, 2024 Community Stress Drop Validation workshop was a tutorial for early career researchers who want to measure, or use measurements of, earthquake stress drop. It was held in-person at the Hilton Palm Springs, 8am - 12 noon. The overall aim of this early-career workshop was to showcase and demonstrate different methods for estimating stress drop with two broad aims: to enable those wanting to measure earthquake source parameters to learn state-of-the-art practice, AND to provide the necessary understanding for informed use of these measurements by those wanting to include them in their own research. The majority of the 27 attendees were early career students and postdocs looking to learn more about the mechanics of stress drop estimation and uses and applications of the estimates.
Workshop #2 was a virtual and discussion-based, focusing on what we have learnt from the first comparative study, and what to do next. It was held virtually on Zoom on February 25, 2025 with 110 participants, from 25 countries, with over 50% from outside of the United States, demonstrating the global reach of this community. The overall aim was to discuss the results from the first stage of the Community Study, as published in the BSSA Special Issue: Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters, to discuss a synthetic experiment, and to consider a potential larger proposal to NSF or similar in order to move the community forward.
Intellectual Merit The motivation for the Community Stress Drop Validation Project is to understand the nature of discrepancies in earthquake stress drop, as well as its random and physical variability. The main goals are to use a common data set of records from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence to address the questions:
How do differing methods and model assumptions affect stress drop estimates?
How do different researchers approach similar methods?
How do data quantity, quality, selection and processing affect stress drop estimates?
How do physical source, path, and site features affect the estimates?
What measurements would be most useful for the broader community?
Broader Impacts Throughout the Community Stress Drop Validation Project, we have created a diverse and global community, with participation from undergrad through emeritus researchers from around the globe from a variety of research backgrounds. Workshop #2 had attendees from over 25 countries, more than half of whom were from outside the US.
Workshop #1 was "by early career, for early career" with 4 invited early-career tutorial leaders - including one graduate student and one postdoc. About 20 early-career attendees asked many questions throughout. This workshop helped many to understand the details of stress drop, so that they could make measurements or understand methods when using stress drop.
Project Participants 100+ global participants from government, academia, industry across all career levels. Workshop #1 was attended in person by ~25 early career researchers who both presented and participated. 110 participants, from 25 countries, with over 50% from outside of the United States, attended Workshop #2 virtually.
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Linked Publications

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