There is a significant probability within the coming decades of rupture along the San Jacinto Fault, which has been seismically active in recent history. With this in mind, the goal of our SCEC/SURE study is to increase preparedness for several possible earthquake scenarios along the San Jacinto fault focusing specifically on the Anza, San Bernardino Valley and San Jacinto Valley segments, the region in which the Earthquake Processes group at UC Riverside will most likely be the first to respond in the event of an earthquake.

Locating coordinates for a benchmark in the Box Springs

Key components involved in the project include resurveying various GPS benchmarks throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and using elastic deformation models to construct post-earthquake response strategies that emphasize and prioritize particular GPS benchmarks. Initially, a list of eighteen benchmarks were selected to be resurveyed over the course of the summer based on the year in which they were last surveyed (the most recent being in 2001) and for their locations relative to the surface fault traces and to those of continuous GPS and recent campaign sites.

A unit setup on Thomas Mountain

One of the greatest challenges to us this summer was locating many of the targeted benchmarks. In the eighteen years since many of them had last been surveyed several had been buried by dirt and debris, some are now located on private land and others simply do not exist anymore. Site descriptions from previous campaigns proved to be inadequate or not available for the majority of benchmarks. As a result, Google Map directions and a hand-held GPS unit became constant companions of mine over the summer. To rectify this for future work we will make our site descriptions and other useful information collected from our campaign available to the public.

After a particularly rough drive to a site

The original list of target benchmarks has since been modified to reflect the outcomes of reconnaissance work and running simple forward and inverse models that identify the value of each site in a response to an earthquake event.

View field notes from other SURE Interns:   Select an intern... Alex Wilk Christina Velasquez Hannah Waterhouse Joshua Soble Lauren Steinberg Melissa Nunley Nathan Williams Patrick Dooling Trevor Thomas Tyanna Schlom