2026 SCEC Community Stress Drop Validation Workshop

Date: January 20, 2026
Location: Online via Zoom
Workshop Organizers: Annemarie Baltay (USGS), Rachel Abercrombie (Boston University)
SCEC Award: 25134

Please register by January 16, 2026

Summary

The Community Stress Drop Validation Study is a global community of researchers that always welcomes new members interested in reliable source parameter measurements. Our focus is understanding the physical controls and methodological reasons for similarity or differences in stress drops and other source characterization parameters, to enable more reliable use by the earthquake science community. Over the past four years, over 20 research groups have submitted stress drop estimates from the 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence common dataset, and many more have participated in analysis, workshops and community building. The results to date were recently published in a BSSA special issue on Improving Measurements of Earthquake Source Parameters. So far, we have demonstrated and quantified the uncertainties in methodological biases in stress drop estimates, and their possible magnitude and depth dependencies. Check here for more info and links to recent work and efforts!

The next step is for the community to investigate and test improved approaches and address the remaining unanswered questions, using a new empirical dataset and synthetic datasets. In this workshop, we will discuss ongoing work on new methods on both empirical and synthetic datasets, and discuss new data. We will also discuss future plans for an expanded community study.

Anyone who is interested in stress drops or source parameters, or their use and implication in other fields, is encouraged to attend! We welcome those from all research backgrounds at any stage of your career. As always, we will have multiple opportunities for discussion and participation.

January 20, 2026

TimeDescriptionPresenter
09:00 - 10:45Session I: Introduction and Ongoing Work
We will hear a few invited talks on ongoing work, and then have time for contributed slides and discussion from the whole community on current progress. We are especially interested in how methods have evolved recently given feedback from the first stage of the Community Project.
Rachel Abercrombie, Annemarie Baltay
Community progress: Invited talksInvited speakers
Community progress: Open discussion with contributed slidesAll
10:45 - 11:00Break
11:00 - 12:30Session II: New Data Sets
Presentations from community members on new empirical datasets and regions, with a discussion and perhaps a vote on what data to choose.
Presentation of candidate datasets and group discussionInvited speakers to represent different candidate datasets
12:30 - 13:30Break
13:30 - 15:00Session III: Synthetics and looking forward
We will hear about previous synthetic data analysis for earthquake stress drop or source parameters, and then a discussion of several stochastic and other simplistic datasets we will use for the Community Project. 
Ongoing/completed synthetic dataset studyInvited speakers
Discussion of community synthetic datasetsDino Bindi, Annemarie Baltay, Peter Shearer, Rachel Abercrombie
Looking forward: SCEC, NSF, internationalRachel Abercrombie
15:00 - 15:30Wrap up and review of morning for those joining from other timezones and commitments Rachel Abercrombie, Annemarie Baltay

SCEC-USGS Ridgecrest Stress Validation Study

Using a common dataset, researchers estimate stress drop from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. As a community we will compare and validate the estimates to determine physical controls on stress drop variability. Current focus on 55 specific events. For more information, see the SCEC Technical Activity Group (TAG) for Community Stress Drop Validation Group 

SCEC Activities Code of Conduct

The Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC) fosters a diverse and inclusive community where everyone feels safe, productive, and welcome. We expect all participants in SCEC-supported events to uphold this commitment by adhering to the SCEC Activities Code of Conduct.

SCEC Meetings and Workshops

The SCEC Annual Meeting brings together 400-500 participants worldwide to share breakthroughs, assess progress, and chart a collaborative path for earthquake science. All of the Center activities are presented, analyzed, and woven into a set of priorities for SCEC to pursue in the future.

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