SCEC Award Number 22047 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Data Gathering and Products)
Proposal Title Creation of the Community Paleoseismic Database (CPD) and its IT infrastructure to support SCEC science
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Sinan Akciz California State University, Fullerton Scott Marshall Appalachian State University Alex Hatem University of Southern California Philip Maechling University of Southern California
Other Participants Mei-Hui Su (SCEC IT)
Edric Pauk (SCEC IT)
SCEC Priorities 5c, 1a, 1c SCEC Groups CXM, Geology, SAFS
Report Due Date 03/15/2023 Date Report Submitted 03/15/2024
Project Abstract
 Active faults pose a natural hazard to communities and infrastructure throughout California. Understanding the slip rates and recurrence intervals of active faults is critical for defining associated hazards and risks. While the U.S. Geological Survey (nationally and regionally) and California Geological Survey (statewide) often take the lead on these efforts, SCEC community also contributes significantly by providing the results of scientific investigations and critical evaluation of the findings by experts. Given that SCEC already hosts several community models, a Community Paleoseismic Database (CPD) is a logical expansion of these resources. Since our proposal, community decided to group these earthquake geology data under the name of “SCEC Earthquake Geology Information Warehouse” (see https://www.scec.org/research/earthquake-geology) and include not only geologic slip rate and paleoseismic data, but also data compiled in the precariously balanced rocks data archive. Here we report the status of our efforts as of March, 2024. In summary, on September 06, 2023, the SCEC Geologic Slip Rate Database webpage went online (see https://www.scec.org/research/gsrd) and is now accessible to the SCEC community. The geochronological data compilation from paleoseismic investigations is still in progress.
Intellectual Merit Many SCEC-related efforts depend on accurate knowledge of paleoseismic data, including dates and rates of earthquake recurrence, fault slip rates, and measurements of surface slip per earthquake. Despite this, paleoseismic data is not as easily or completely accessible in California as it is in other countries where active faults pose significant hazards (e.g., Basili et al., 2008; Garcia-Mayordomo et al., 2012; Langridge et al., 2016; AIST, 2016). The SCEC CPD will enable discovery, access, and sharing of this data in a queryable web-based interface that is cross referenced with the SCEC CFM. Most importantly, when new data is published, the CPD provides a user-submission tool for users to notify the CPD maintainers of new slip rate and chronology data as it is published.
Broader Impacts Lack of standardized access to paleoseismic data has led to inefficiency, frustration, and inequity for users that need access to this data. This has put the burden on individual researchers, often not paleoseismology experts, who periodically and independently compile published and online information from these many different literature sources. The time needed to search and retrieve this information is enormous and, once found, the data often must be standardized before they can be used. The CPD solves this by providing a one stop shop for paleoseismic data for the SCEC and greater earthquake community.
Exemplary Figure Figure 2. The SCEC Geologic Slip Rate Database Explorer currently consists of a set of georegistered sites where geologic estimates of fault slip rates have been estimated. To simplify browsing and downloading the Slip Rate Database, the explorer below provides a two-dimensional map-based view of the Slip Rate Database. The Slip Rate Database can be queried based on fault or site name, and minimum/maximum slip rate, or by individually clicking on points on the map. Once sites are selected, they are added to the list below the map interface with selected metadata shown. The complete 27 columns of metadata for all selected sites can be downloaded (in .csv format) with the "Download All Data" button.