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The SCEC UCVM Software Framework for Distributing and Querying Seismic Velocity Models

Philip J. Maechling, David Gill, Ricardo Taborda, John H. Shaw, Andreas Plesch, Kim B. Olsen, Scott Callaghan, Thomas H. Jordan, & Christine A. Goulet

Submitted June 25, 2018, SCEC Contribution #7989

Crustal seismic velocity models are used in regional three-dimensional numerical earthquake ground-motion simulations, full waveform tomography, modern physics-based probabilistic earthquake hazard analysis, and in other related fields including geophysics, seismology, and earthquake engineering. The standard material properties provided by a seismic velocity model are P- and S-wave velocities and density (rho) for any arbitrary point within the geographic volume for which the model is defined. Many seismic velocity models and datasets are constructed by synthesizing information from multiple sources and the resulting models are delivered to users in multiple file formats, such as text files, binary files, HDF-5 files, structured and unstructured grids, and through computer applications that allow for interactive querying of material properties. The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has developed the Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software framework to facilitate the registration and distribution of existing and future seismic velocity models to the SCEC community. The UCVM software framework is designed to provide a standard query interface to multiple, alternative velocity models, even if the underlying velocity models are defined in different formats or use different geographic projections. The UCVM framework provides a collection of open-source tools for querying seismic velocity model properties, combining regional 3D models and 1D background models, visualizing 3D models, and generating computational models in the form of regular grids or unstructured meshes that can be used as inputs for ground-motion simulations. The UCVM framework helps researchers compare seismic velocity models and build equivalent simulation meshes from alternative velocity models. These capabilities enable researchers to evaluate the impact of alternative velocity models in ground-motion simulations and seismic hazard analysis applications

Key Words
Seismic Velocity Models

Citation
Maechling, P. J., Gill, D., Taborda, R., Shaw, J. H., Plesch, A., Olsen, K. B., Callaghan, S., Jordan, T. H., & Goulet, C. A. (2018, 06). The SCEC UCVM Software Framework for Distributing and Querying Seismic Velocity Models. Poster Presentation at 11th National Conference in Earthquake Engineering. https://11ncee.org/images/program/papers/11NCEE-000398.pdf