SCEC Award Number 11054 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title Evaluating resolution of block models, fault slip rate uncertainties, and fault inventories in southern California
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Brendan Meade Harvard University
Other Participants Loveless, John
SCEC Priorities A2, A3, A10 SCEC Groups Geodesy, CDM
Report Due Date 02/29/2012 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
Models if interseismic deformation and fault stressing rates are typically predicated on a particular researcher's selection of a subset of the southern California fault inventory. Selecting a subset of these fault to consider would be perfectly reasonable if we could systematically identify the most important faults. This is purpose of this work. We have taken three approaches to a block model analysis of the problem. The two that were described in the proposal were the classical SVD decomposition and a brute force combinatorial approach. The more interesting result is that we understood and implemented the total variation denoising algorithm that allows us to deterministically solve for the fewest number of unique Euler poles necessary to describe the motion of a large number of microplates.
Intellectual Merit SCEC has expended great effort on the characterization of potentially seismogenic faults in southern California. This work is an effort to develop algorithms to systematically determine the relative importance of each of these faults in terms of slip rate. This is the next step in evaluating the potential seismic impact of each fault contained in a fault catalog such as the Community Fault Model.
Broader Impacts This most direct broader impact is that the algorithms used here will be included in the next release of the BLOCKS code from Harvard. This will allow other students and researchers to understand and use these methods for their own projects.
Exemplary Figure Figure 2.