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Data Transfer File Formats for Earthquake Simulators

Michael Barall

Published 2012, SCEC Contribution #1627

We have developed a set of standard file formats, which contain input and output data for earthquake simulators. The formats are used in the SCEC Earthquake Simulator Comparison Project to provide identical fault geometry and input parameters to all the participating simulators, and to transfer the simulator results into analytical tools which process the outputs identically and then compare them. Faults are represented as two-dimensional surfaces, with coordinates of depth and distance-along-strike (DAS), which permits simulator output to be expressed without the use of discrete fault elements. The standard files are all special cases of a generic container format, which combines the extreme simplicity of a line-oriented ASCII record format with some of the extensibility and self-describing character of more complicated formats.

Citation
Barall, M. (2012). Data Transfer File Formats for Earthquake Simulators. Seismological Research Letters, 83(6), 991-993. doi: 10.1785/0220120040.