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Five announcements from the SCEC Community

Date: 03/16/2023

Dear SCEC Community,

Please see below for the following five announcements:

  • Call for Papers: BSSA Special Issue for the Centennial of Great 1923 Kanto, Japan, Earthquake
  • ICE-D project workshop on cosmogenic-nuclide dating of active tectonic features: April 26-28
  • 2023 PyLith Hackathon: Apply now
  • 2023 International Sociological Association Research Committee on Disasters (IRCD) Researchers’ Meeting Call for Abstracts
  • Job Posting: Staff Seismologist at the California Department of Conservation

 

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On behalf of Becky Ham, SSA

Call for Papers: BSSA Special Issue for the Centennial of Great 1923 Kanto, Japan, Earthquake

The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) is soliciting manuscripts for a Special Issue on the Centennial Anniversary of the Great September 1st, 1923, Kanto earthquake and fire.

The Kanto earthquake of 1923 (M7.9) was one of the most devastating earthquakes in history, killing nearly 105,000 in the environs of Tokyo and Yokohama. Most of the deaths and 95% of the property loss were attributed to fires following the earthquake, although shaking and tsunami damage was extensive. Current earthquake-resistant design and emergency preparedness in Tokyo are based largely on a repeat of the 1923 earthquake.

This Special Issue invites papers on any topic associated with the 1923 Kanto earthquake. Rupture during the 1923 Kanto earthquake occurred as reverse, right-lateral faulting on a low-angle plane along the Sagami Trough, on one of the closest subduction interfaces to a heavily populated area on the planet. Early studies of the hypocenter were followed by early seismological and geodetic models of the earthquake, and later by detailed finite-fault rupture models and estimates of strong shaking. We encourage retrospective and forward-looking studies of any aspects of the Kanto earthquake, including manuscripts on seismotectonics, historical earthquakes, strong motions and the basin response in the Kanto Plain. We also invite studies on earthquake-engineering aspects, loss and risk estimation, secondary tsunami, fire, and ground failure studies, as well as planning, response and scenario development, and their effective communication.

Guest Editors for this Special Issue:

Hiroshi Kawase, Kyoto University (kawase.hiroshi.6x@kyoto-u.ac.jp)
Hiroe Miyake, University of Tokyo (hiroe@eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
Jim Mori, Kyoto University (mori.james.52s@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
Shinji Toda, Tohoku University (toda@irides.tohoku.ac.jp)
David Wald, U.S. Geological Survey (wald@usgs.gov)

Deadline for Submission: 15 April 2023.

Papers submitted in advance of the deadline will be reviewed as they are received, published online soon after they are accepted and published collectively in print in the October 2023 issue.

In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow BSSA’s author guidelines at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/bssa-submission-guidelines/. Papers must be submitted via BSSA’s online submission system (www.edmgr.com/bssa) under the category “Centennial of Great 1923 Kanto, Japan, Earthquake.”

Please address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors at their respective email addresses or to BSSA Editor-in-Chief P. Martin Mai at bssaeditor@seismosoc.org.  Submission-related questions should be addressed to Emily Hammond, BSSA manuscript coordinator, at bssamss@seismosoc.org.

 

 

 

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On behalf of Greg Balco, Berkeley Geochronology Center

ICE-D project workshop on cosmogenic-nuclide dating of active tectonic features: April 26-28

The ICE-D database project (https://www.ice-d.org) is an effort to organize cosmogenic-nuclide exposure-age data that are useful for, among other things, dating offset landforms used to reconstruct fault slip and surface deformation. It uses a “transparent-middle-layer” design that solves a number of problems associated with synoptic analysis of geochronology data by enforcing internally consistent calculation of geologic ages across a large data set. So far, the database has mostly been used for exposure-dating applications associated with ice sheet change in Antarctica (https://www.ice-d.org/antarctica), Greenland (https://www.ice-d.org/greenland) and alpine glaciers in many parts of the world (https://www.ice-d.org/alpine), and these aspects of the project are now commonly used for synoptic analysis of ice sheet and glacier change as well as benchmarking ice sheet model simulations. There is a lot more information about the overall project at https://wiki.ice-d.org.

A workshop will take place at Cal State University San Bernardino on April 26-28 that is aimed at using this database infrastructure for neotectonics applications. A large number of offset landforms and other markers of surface deformation have been dated using cosmogenic-nuclide exposure-dating, burial-dating, and depth-profile dating methods. As with the ice sheet examples, it would be extremely useful to be able to look at the entire collection of these data for large fault systems synoptically. The workshop will focus on building a group of students and researchers who are interested in synoptic analysis of this type of data for slip rate reconstructions or related purposes. Several spaces are available at the workshop and the purpose of this email is to invite applications from additional potential attendees.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

  • How the ICE-D database infrastructure is set up and organized
  • How to put data into the database
  • Hands-on exercise in digging tectonics-related cosmogenic-nuclide data (probably mostly related to US West Coast fault systems, although this isn’t required) out of the literature and building the database
  • How to get data out of the database for analysis and visualization purposes using MATLAB, Python, GIS applications, etc.
  • How to link the database of exposure ages with other data sets, for example with feature offset data to dynamically calculate slip rates
  • As time permits, exercises in using ICE-D data in an embedded web map and/or building web applications that use ICE-D data

The overall aim is to build the group of users who are able to and interested in contributing to the database project and using it for Earth science applications.

Folks attending the workshop should have at least some of the following characteristics:

  • Involved in research having to do with neotectonics applications of cosmogenic-nuclide dating
  • Involved in or interested in using large exposure-age data sets for synoptic analysis
  • Motivated to participate in the ICE-D project in future by (i) building or maintaining databases, (ii) developing new analysis or visualization applications, or (iii) using ICE-D resources for undergraduate/graduate teaching or outreach.
  • Nonzero knowledge of programming environments used to build websites and/or analyze data, in particular SQL, Python, and MATLAB.
  • Most likely a graduate student or postdoc

Some NSF funding is available to support travel costs for students and early career researchers.

To apply, please send the following to Joe Tulenko (jtulenko@bgc.org) before March 25th:

  • A CV
  • A letter explaining (i) how you meet the requirements above, and (ii) what you would like to do with the ICE-D databases or infrastructure.

More information is available on a workshop web page at: https://wiki.ice-d.org/workshops:tectonics1

 

 

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On behalf of Brad Aagaard, USGS

2023 PyLith Hackathon: Apply now

The 2023 PyLith hackathon will be held at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO, over 7 days (June 12-17, Mon-Sat); participants will arrive on June 11 and depart late on June 17 or June 18. Our target is to have 3-4 projects with 3-4 people working on each project.

Projects involve implementing new features or examples in PyLith.

Recommended prerequisites for participating in the hackathon:

  • Desire to learn modern software development techniques
  • Comfortable with using the command line (terminal) on Unix operating systems
  • Familiar with C, C++, and/or Python
  • Familiar with boundary value problems and partial differential equations
  • Ability to spend time preparing for the hackathon
  • At least some knowledge of object-oriented programming

Hackathon webpage: https://geodynamics.org/events/details/287

Application: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2023-pylith-hackathon-registration-565409774857

 

Potential Projects

In addition to the list of potential projects below, prospective participants may also propose projects by contacting the PyLith developers (send an email to baagaard@usgs.gov).

  • Poroelasticity: Extend the current poroelasticity implementation and examples.
  • Integration of Bayesian Inversion with PyLith: Create benchmark problems for using PyLith Green's functions in a Bayesian inversion framework, such as CATMIP (https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggt180) or hIPPYlib (https://hippylib.github.io/).
  • Examples for 3D Crustal Faults: Create examples of prescribed fault slip on a small system of 3D crustal faults to complement the existing 3D subduction zone example. This is a great project for someone who wants to learn how to use PyLith in a research problem involving crustal faults with realistic geometry and material properties.
  • Earthquake cycle: Couple quasi-static interseismic and dynamic coseismic simulations to resolve the full dynamics of the earthquake cycle, including rupture propagation and radiated seismic waves and viscoelastic relaxation and aseismic creep.
  • Point dislocation earthquake sources: Implement point dislocation earthquake sources using a moment tensor. This provide a point source implementation to complement the finite-source implementation of cohesive cells. Point dislocations are useful for modeling events whose rupture dimensions are small compared to the discretization size.
  • Viscoelastic bulk rheologies using strain rate: The current Maxwell and power-law viscoelastic rheologies are formulated with strain as the primary variable. A more natural formulation is to use strain rate rather than strain as the primary variable. This project would add new implementations of the Maxwell, generalized Maxwell, and power-law viscoelastic bulk rheologies that use strain rate rather than strain as the primary variable.
  • Adaptive mesh refinement: Add support for adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) in PyLith by leveraging the AMR capabilities in PETSc.

 

 

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On behalf of Paula Burgi, USGS

2023 International Sociological Association Research Committee on Disasters (IRCD) Researchers’ Meeting Call for Abstracts

Dear Colleagues,

We hope you will submit a hazards or disaster-focused abstract for the 2023 Researchers Meeting, to be held July 12-13, 2023. This meeting is organized by the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Disasters (RC-39) and supported by the Natural Hazards Center and the CONVERGE facility at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The abstract submission window is open now until March 31, 2023:
https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/abstract/researchers-meeting/submission-form

This year's Researchers Meeting is organized around New Frontiers of Disaster Research: Action-Oriented Approaches to Solve Complex Challenges. Plenary and thematic sessions will focus on this theme. However, we welcome researchers from all disciplines and encourage research submissions focused on any topic related to hazards and disasters. In addition to providing updates on cutting-edge research, this year’s program will provide new opportunities for building research collaborations. New session formats will include training and networking sessions to help establish partnerships and research-to-action synergies.

An overview of this year’s meeting is available here:
https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/researchers-meeting/overview.

For more information about the 2023 Researchers Meeting, including registration rates, lodging, and accommodations, please see:
https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/researchers-meeting.

As with prior year’s, the Researchers Meeting will immediately follow the close of the annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. You can learn more about the Workshop (https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/theme) and sign up for updates and alerts via the Natural Hazards Center website:  https://hazards.colorado.edu/signup.

Please email any questions to sara.hamideh@stonybrook.edu or sloos@umich.edu.

Regards,

Sara Hamideh (Chair) and Sabine Loos (Co-Chair)

 

 

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On behalf of Deanna Kaihara, California Department of Conservation

Job Posting: Staff Seismologist at the California Department of Conservation

The California Department of Conservation is looking to hire a Staff Seismologist.

Under the general direction and supervision of the Senior Engineering Geologist for the Data Products Unit of the California Strong-Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP), the incumbent will utilize earthquake strong-motion data to conduct advanced seismological studies in support of CSMIP’s operations. In addition to the daily analysis and evaluation of strong-motion data in response to earthquakes, the incumbent will be involved in the development and maintenance of seismological tools and applications to facilitate the collection, processing, and dissemination of strong-motion data from CSMIP’s real-time and triggered systems.

See the full posting at: https://www.calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/Jobs/JobPosting.aspx?JobControlId=351039

The application period closes on April 3, 2023.

 

 

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