SCEC Award Number 21137 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Data Gathering and Products)
Proposal Title Estimating spatio-temporal geomorphic change with semantic rock trait maps
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Ramon Arrowsmith Arizona State University Jnaneshwar Das Arizona State University
Other Participants Harish Anand, Zhiang Chen, Devin Keating, and Prasad Antervedi (ASU)
SCEC Priorities 4b, 4d, 5b SCEC Groups Geology, SAFS, GM
Report Due Date 03/15/2022 Date Report Submitted 02/19/2024
Project Abstract
 This project advanced several elements of research in fragile geologic features with application to distributed seismic hazards. The work included two dimensional semantic mapping of rocks and extraction of their geometric traits (size and shape) from high resolution orthoimagery. It also explore extraction of three dimensional rocks from point clouds. Finally it explored the dynamics of precariously balanced rocks and fragile geologic features as driven by ground motions by building a virtual shake robot. The results were published in two peer reviewed papers and a dissertation.
Our main effort has been to standardize the code and tools associated with our virtual shake robot and to continue large displacement experiments.
Intellectual Merit This project contributed to intellectual merit by deploying new computational tools innovatively in several ways. First, it used machine learning tools to perform semantic image segmentation to map simple features at scale with applications to understanding tectonic landforms (fault scarps) and fragile geologic features. Secondly, it uses physics engines to build a flexible toolkit for simulating ground motions and the dynamic response of arbitrary objects such as precariously balanced rocks.
Broader Impacts This project had several broader impacts. It brought new computational tools to the earthquake geology realm of SCEC. It supported the innovative work of a Ph.D. student. It developed tools with applied value for constraining probabilistic seismic hazards at long return times by advancing our understanding of the dynamics of precariously balanced rocks.
Exemplary Figure My favorite is figure 2. It is amazing to see a fault scarp in grain size space.