Recent Achievements of the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability

Maria Liukis, Maximilian J. Werner, Danijel Schorlemmer, John Yu, Philip J. Maechling, David D. Jackson, David A. Rhoades, Zechar D. Zechar, Warner Marzocchi, Thomas H. Jordan, & the CSEP Working Group

Published August 15, 2016, SCEC Contribution #6908, 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #315

The Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) supports a global program to conduct prospective earthquake forecasting experiments. CSEP testing centers are now operational in California, New Zealand, Japan, China, and Europe with 442 models under evaluation. The California testing center, started by SCEC, Sept 1, 2007, currently hosts 30-minute, 1-day, 3-month, 1-year and 5-year forecasts, both alarm-based and probabilistic, for California, the Western Pacific, and worldwide. Our tests are now based on the hypocentral locations and magnitudes of cataloged earthquakes, but we plan to test focal mechanisms, seismic hazard models, ground motion forecasts, and finite rupture forecasts as well. We have increased computational efficiency for high-resolution global experiments, such as the evaluation of the Global Earthquake Activity Rate (GEAR) model, introduced Bayesian ensemble models, and implemented support for non-Poissonian simulation-based forecasts models. We are currently developing formats and procedures to evaluate externally hosted forecasts and predictions. CSEP supports the USGS program in operational earthquake forecasting and a DHS project to register and test external forecast procedures from experts outside seismology. We found that earthquakes as small as magnitude 2.5 provide important information on subsequent earthquakes larger than magnitude 5. A retrospective experiment for the 2010-2012 Canterbury earthquake sequence showed that some physics-based and hybrid models outperform catalog-based (e.g., ETAS) models. This experiment also demonstrates the ability of the CSEP infrastructure to support retrospective forecast testing. Current CSEP development activities include adoption of the Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat) as an authorized data source, retrospective testing of simulation-based forecasts, and support for additive ensemble methods. We describe the open-source CSEP software that is available to researchers as they develop their forecast models. We also discuss how CSEP procedures are being adapted to intensity and ground motion prediction experiments as well as hazard model testing.

Key Words
CSEP, earthquake prediction

Citation
Liukis, M., Werner, M. J., Schorlemmer, D., Yu, J., Maechling, P. J., Jackson, D. D., Rhoades, D. A., Zechar, Z. D., Marzocchi, W., Jordan, T. H., & Working Group, t. (2016, 08). Recent Achievements of the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP)