SCEC Award Number 25137 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Research Project (Multiple Investigators / Institutions)
Proposal Title Evaluation and Expansion of the statewide SCEC Community Fault Model
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Scott Marshall Appalachian State University Andreas Plesch Harvard University John Shaw Harvard University Philip Maechling University of Southern California
SCEC Milestones A3-1, A1-1, C1-1 SCEC Groups CEM, Seismology, PBS
Report Due Date 03/15/2026 Date Report Submitted 03/12/2026
Project Abstract
 SCEC's Community Earth Models are integral to its earthquake science mission as impactful earthquake scenarios, ground motion simulations, next-generation computational models, and post-earthquake investigations all rely on a comprehensive 3D fault model. In 2024, we delivered the first statewide SCEC Community Fault Model, CFM 7.0. While the CFM has existed since 2001, the northern California portion of the CFM is in its infancy. In 2025, we organized an open community evaluation of the northern California portion of the CFM which yielded a large volume of overall positive and constructive feedback including identification of 45 missing faults and > 100 suggestions for improvements. We have shared this feedback with colleagues at CRESCENT, as they are also working to produce a fault model of northern California. We have plans in place to share the work involving the needed fault updates. In the last year, we have created new fault representations along the California-Oregon border and a new subduction interface which will be included in the next CFM release. During 2025, we also significantly updated the web presence of the CFM with a new homepage, released significant functionality updates to the CFM Explorer, and deployed a major update to the earthquake-to-fault association service, which is now directly linked to the CFM Explorer and provides interactive 2D and 3D visualizations for users. We aim to release the next major CFM version in the next year, once the northern California evaluation feedback has been addressed. Finally, we published a peer reviewed manuscript covering the well-established southern California portion of CFM 7.0.
SCEC Community Models Used Community Fault Model (CFM)
Usage Description This proposal was focused on further development of the CFM including updating, evaluating, and developing upgraded web-based tools for the model.
Intellectual Merit The SCEC Community Fault Model is a state-of-the art, comprehensive 3D representation of the major known faults that pose earthquake hazards in southern California. The model is used as the basis for many research and hazard assessment efforts, within and beyond SCEC. As the most established CEM effort, the CFM and its web-based resources are also being directly used to support other community models.
Broader Impacts Having a unified fully three-dimensional model is critical for a wide range of SCEC-focusd seismic hazard assessments and the model is now easily accessible for anyone, novice or expert, that wants to use 3D fault surfaces in their work. The CFM Explorer has greatly reduced the barriers to access the CFM. The updated earthquake-to-fault association service now has advanced visualizations, which will greatly benefit early response efforts.
Project Participants PIs, Marshall, Plesch, Shaw also worked with Mei-Hu Su, Philip Maechling, Edric Pauk, and Tran Huynh (SCEC/USC). We also worked CRESCENT group. We have had numerous meetings with a wide range of stakeholders (e.g., USGS, CGS, and PG&E) that have interests in faults and earthquakes.
Exemplary Figure Figure 1: CFM 7.0 fault traces colored by the major fault area in the CFM hierarchy. Each peer review group was in charge of providing feedback for one or more fault areas. All faults in gray were part of previous southern California CFM evaluations, and were not included in the 2025 community evaluation.
Linked Publications

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