Visualizations for Southern California Earthquake Center(SCEC)
The TeraShake simulations modeled the earthquake that would rattle Southern California if a 230 kilometer section of the San Andreas fault ruptured, producing a magnitude 7.7 earthquake. Two rupture scenarios were simulated. First would progress from north to south, beginning near Wrightwood, California.Second would rupture from south to north, starting near Bombay Beach, California. To model this region, the simulations used a 3,000 by 1,500 by 400 mesh, dividing the volume into 1.8 billion cubes with a spatial resolution of 200 meters on a side, and with a maximum frequency of .5 hertz - the biggest and most detailed simulation of this region to date. In such a large simulation, a key challenge was to handle the enormous range of length scales, which extends from 200 meters - especially important near the ground surface and rupturing fault - to hundreds of kilometers across the entire domain.
Puente Hills Fault posses a disaster threat for Los Angeles region. Earthquake simulations on this fault estimate damages over $250 billion. The research was conducted by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). More information about the study could be found at the SCEC research webpage.
Please visit the main SCEC Visualizations page for all project videos and images.
