Project title, southern california earthquake center

This $3.2 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Geological Survey will fund the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) to conduct earthquake research from February 1, 2022 through January 31, 2024. The research is part of the U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) and will focus on developing improved models for earthquakes and seismic ground motion through collaborative research efforts. Key activities include developing workflows to integrate earthquake models with observational data, attempting to detect underlying large-scale structures using multiple data sets, and updating research on off-fault yielding and dynamic dilatation effects. The Center will provide subawards totaling approximately $3.2 million to twenty research institutions to support focused earthquake studies. Subawardees include universities such as the University of Southern California, the University of California system, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Findings from this research aim to enhance understanding of earthquake processes and reduce seismic hazards in Southern California and globally.

Bridge proposal, 2022-2024. Actual project period, 2/1/2022 through 1/31/2024. Earthquakes are associated with fundamental unsolved scientific questions and substantial societal and economic importance. Improved understanding, forecasting, and preparation for earthquakes requires sustained coordinated efforts on many fronts. The southern california earthquake center conducts and coordinates fundamental and applied research on earthquakes that aims to be global in impact while using southern california as a focused natural laboratory. Our collaboration develops dynamical models of earthquake processes that are comprehensive, integrative, verified, predictive, and validated against observations. The focus on validation of model-based predictions against data is a key to guiding the assessment of uncertainties and driving models towards better representations of reality. Center's validation efforts tightly couple basic earthquake research to the practical needs of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, operational earthquake forecasting, earthquake early warning, and rapid post-earthquake response. The risk reduction problem, which requires actions motivated by useful information strongly couples validated science results to earthquake engineering. This proposal will support center activities for 2 years focusing efforts by a multi disciplinary research community to develop improved models for earthquakes and seismic ground motion, provide new data for testing the models, and improve the understanding of uncertainties. The collaboration will pursue innovative and timely research to 1, develop workflows to integrate and validate existing and future community earth models with observational results. And 2, attempt to detect jointly in all community models possible underlying large-scale structures that have limited manifestations in each data set. And 3, update research on off-fault yielding from the use of (plasticity) to the more general descriptor of (damage), which includes changes of rock properties during failure. And 4, increase studies of dynamic dilatation (volumetric effects) accompanying failure of fault zone materials. Key innovations will include 1- increased use of machine learning in both computational and observational studies across the disciplinary spectrum of earthquake science, 2- increased focus on near-fault studies for testing and developing models of earthquake processes, and 3- improvements to research computing, cyberinfrastructure, and information technology to support the planned science activities. Center will continue testing and validation of codes on key computational platforms; make improvements in simulations and validation of seismic ground motion to promote up-take by engineers; and continue development of physics-based earthquake simulators. Center establishes subawards annually for focused research studies through a competitive process. Over 100 proposals are submitted to the center each year, involving work by 200 distinct investigators and many more students and early career scientists. Center also connects to the social sciences through its mission to convey authoritative information to stakeholders in ways that result in lowered risk and enhanced resilience. Our vision is to engage end-users and the public at large in on-going, community-centric conversations about how to manage particular risks by taking specific actions. Our communication, education, and outreach program seeks to promote this dialog on many levels, through many different channels, and to inform the conversations with authoritative earthquake information. Towards this goal, we will continue to build networks of organizational partners that can act in concert to prepare millions of people of all ages and socioeconomic levels for inevitable earthquake disasters.