A suite of exercises for verifying dynamic earthquake rupture codes

Ruth A. Harris, Michael Barall, Brad Aagaard, Shuo Ma, Daniel Roten, Kim Olsen, Benchun Duan, Bin Luo, Dunyu Liu, Kangchen Bai, Jean-Paul Ampuero, Yoshihiro Kaneko, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Kenneth Duru, Thomas Ulrich, Stephanie Wollherr, Zheqiang Shi, Eric Dunham, Sam Bydlon, Zhenguo Zhang, Xiaofei Chen, Surendra Nadh Somala, Christian Pelties, Josue Tago, Victor Manuel Cruz-Atienza, Jeremy Kozdon, Eric Daub, Khurram Aslam, Yuko Kase, Kyle Withers, & Luis Dalguer

Published April 4, 2018, SCEC Contribution #7960

We describe a set of benchmark exercises that are designed to test if computer codes that simulate dynamic earthquake rupture are working as intended. These types of computer codes are often used to understand how earthquakes operate, and they produce simulation results that include earthquake size, amounts of fault slip, and the patterns of ground shaking and crustal deformation. The benchmark exercises examine a range of features that scientists incorporate in their dynamic earthquake rupture simulations. These include implementations of simple or complex fault geometry, off-fault rock response to an earthquake, stress conditions, and a variety of formulations for fault friction. Many of the benchmarks were designed to investigate scientific problems at the forefronts of earthquake physics and strong ground motions research. The exercises are freely available on our website for use by the scientific community.

Key Words
code verification, dynamic rupture, earthquake simulation, dynamic rupture code verification

Citation
Harris, R. A., Barall, M., Aagaard, B., Ma, S., Roten, D., Olsen, K., Duan, B., Luo, B., Liu, D., Bai, K., Ampuero, J., Kaneko, Y., Gabriel, A., Duru, K., Ulrich, T., Wollherr, S., Shi, Z., Dunham, E., Bydlon, S., Zhang, Z., Chen, X., Somala, S., Pelties, C., Tago, J., Cruz-Atienza, V., Kozdon, J., Daub, E., Aslam, K., Kase, Y., Withers, K., & Dalguer, L. (2018). A suite of exercises for verifying dynamic earthquake rupture codes. Seismological Research Letters, 89(3), 1146-1162. doi: 10.1785/0220170222. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/article/89/3/1146/530061

Related Projects & Working Groups
A Collaborative Project: Rupture Dynamics, Validation of the Numerical Simulation Method, SCEC Dynamic Rupture Code Verification Group