Project Abstract
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In July 1952, the White Wolf Fault produced one of the largest earthquakes to strike southern California. Since then, a number of important source studies have been published at-tempting to characterize the M 7.2–7.4 event. Despite these efforts however, source representations of this event have fundamentally different rupture geometries and slip directions. These differences, which arise from data limitations and uncertainties associated with the structure of the White Wolf Fault system, highlight the need for alternative models, to better recognize the epistemic uncertainties associated with this fault system.
The aim of this study was originally to apply the Riesner et al. (2017) methodology to the White Wolf Fault, to provide a new and objective 3D representation of the fault. The Riesner et al. (2017) method relies on a variety of data sources, including earthquake hypocenters, seismic and well data, 3D fault traces, and focal mechanisms. During this study, we found that access to the geocad software, which was used by Riesner et al. (2017), would have incurred a significant license fee, and that no open-source software alternatives were available (Andreas Plesch, personal communication). Upon learning this, we aimed to develop an open-source software package that would apply the three stages of the Riesner et al. (2017) approach and test it with the White Wolf Fault. This software package could also be applied to future CFM updates of other faults. We encountered unexpected challenges related to the creation and implementation of this software package, as described in the report.
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