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SCEC Software

SCEC Software Staff
SCEC Software Repositories 
SCEC Software Support
Software Licensing
SCEC developed software is licensed by University of Southern California under a BSD-3 open-source license. In some cases, SCEC software distributions include software applications from other organizations, and these software application may be released under their own open-source software licenses.
Support for Software Development
SCEC software development is supported by NSF, USGS, PG&E, and the W.M. Keck Foundation.

Introduction

SCEC’s community of researchers expand our knowledge of earthquake system science, very often through the use of specialized software tools created by SCEC itself. Developing these software tools is a product of partnerships between researchers and computer scientists on SCEC’s Staff. Examples include software for implementing SCEC community models, models of physics-based earthquake processes, earthquake ground motion, and seismic hazard modeling methods. These tools are often used together, with some producing results that can be used as inputs by others in the collection.
 
SCEC Staff collectively have a large breadth of technology expertise and thus the tools include highly technical open-source software distributions as well as easy-to-use data access websites.
 
SCEC open-source software distributions are managed and released by SCEC Staff, who manage and approve contributions from the SCEC community.
 
SCEC software websites are maintained by the SCEC Staff or the SCEC community, most of which take advantage of SCEC open-source software distributions. The website code itself is typically not distributed.
 
Externally maintained SCEC research software provides important research capabilities to the SCEC community while being developed and maintained by geoscientific and computer science researchers outside of the SCEC software staff. These software are typically released as open source software distributions by their developers.
SCEC software has been used in hundreds of peer review research publications, by PhD students and post-docs in academic and commercial research projects. Beyond research, it is also helping to reduce hazards to society through formal seismic hazard evaluations of critical structures, and socially significant seismic hazard data products released by the USGS. 

SCEC-Supported Open source Software Distributions

Broadband Platform (BBP)

  The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Broadband Platform (BBP) is a software system that can generate 0-20+ Hz seismograms for historical and scenario earthquakes in California, Eastern North America, and Japan using several alternative computational methods.

CyberShake

  The CyberShake computational platform is an integrated collection of scientific software and middleware that performs 3D physics-based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). CyberShake integrates large-scale and high-throughput research codes to produce probabilistic seismic hazard curves for individual locations of interest and hazard maps for an entire region.

Open Seismic Hazard Analysis (OpenSHA)

  OpenSHA is an open-source, Java-based platform for conducting Seismic Hazard Analysis (SHA). As an object-oriented framework, OpenSHA can accommodate arbitrarily complex (e.g., physics based) earthquake rupture forecasts (ERFs), ground-motion models, and engineering-response models, which narrows the gap between cutting-edge geophysics and state-of-the-art hazard and risk evaluations.

pyCSEP

  pyCSEP is a python library that provides tools for (1) evaluating probabilistic earthquake forecasts, (2) working with earthquake catalogs in this context, and (3) creating visualizations. pyCSEP supports open earthquake forecasting experiments officially coordinated by CSEP. pyCSEP has received contributions from several PhD students, post-docs, and developers from outside institutions.

Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM)

  The Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software framework provides access to detailed information about earth properties, namely P- and S-wave velocities and density, on regional scales for use by earth scientists, civil engineers, computational scientists, and other groups. The UCVM software allows users to query several existing seismic velocity models, and it provides standard methods for tri-linear interpolation, for calculating Vs30 from models, for meshing, and for combining models.

 

SCEC Supported Software Websites

The SCEC research community has developed several websites that provide access to SCEC research software. The software implementing the websites is typically not distributed as open-source software distributions.

SCEC Software
 Description
MCER Interactive Website for accessing CyberShake Maximum Credible Earthquake Rupture Engineering information for civil engineering studies
CFM Interactive Website for accessing SCEC Community Fault Model
CGM Interactive Website for accessing SCEC Community Geodetic Model (Preliminary)
CRM Interactive Website for accessing SCEC Community Rheology Model (Preliminary)
CSM Interactive Website for accessing SCEC Community Stress Model
CM Interactive website for accessing SCEC Community Velocity models with overlays from other CXM models for comparison purposes. (Preliminary)
Dynamic Rupture Website Website describing the SCEC Dynamic Rupture activity including problem descriptions and comparison results
SEAS Project Website SCEC Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip (SEAS) Project website including benchmark problem descriptions and comparison tools
SCEC CMS Interactive website that provides access to the SCEC research community, proposal, and project reports

 

Externally Maintained SCEC Research Software

SCEC research uses software developed by geoscientific and computer science communities in collaboration with SCEC researchers. These software are maintained by their own development groups and are often distributed as open-source research software distributions.

SCEC Software
 Description
AWP-ODC Anelastic Wave Propagation - Olsen, Day, Cui (AWP-ODC) - High performance dynamic rupture and earthquake wave propagation software with both CPU and GPU implementation that simulates wave propagation in a 3D viscoelastic or elastic solids. 
FAST End-to-end earthquake detection pipeline via efficient time series similarity search
RSQSim Earthquake simulator software that implements rate- and state-dependent friction (RSF) and allows general fault system geometries with the attendant normal stress variations. 
SeisSol Scientific software for the numerical simulation of seismic wave phenomena and earthquake dynamics
SORD Support Operator Rupture Dynamics (SORD) - High performance dynamic rupture and wave propagation code that simulates spontaneous rupture within a 3D isotropic viscoelastic solid

 

Selected Publications

  • Field, E. H., Kevin R. Milner, K.R., Luco, N. (2021) The Seismic Hazard Implications of Declustering and Poisson Assumptions Inferred from a Fully Time-Dependent Model. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2021;; 112 (1): 527–537. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210027 SCEC Contribution 11111
  • Milner, K.R., Shaw, B. E., Goulet, C.A., Richards-Dinger, K.B., Callaghan, S., Jordan, T. H., Dieterich, J.H., Field, E.H. (2021) Toward Physics-Based Nonergodic PSHA: A Prototype Fully Deterministic Seismic Hazard Model for Southern California. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2021;; 111 (2): 898–915. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120200216 SCEC Contribution 10107
  • Savran, W.H., Werner, M.J., Schorlemmer, D., Maechling, P.J. (2022). pyCSEP: A Python Toolkit For Earthquake Forecast Developers. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(69), 3658, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03658 SCEC Contribution 11017
  • Field EH, Milner KR, Porter KA. (2020) Assessing the value of removing earthquake-hazard-related epistemic uncertainties, exemplified using average annual loss in California. Earthquake Spectra. 2020;36(4):1912-1929. https://doi.org/10.1177/8755293020926185 SCEC Contribution 10055
  • Savran, W.H., Werner, M.J., Marzocchi, W., Rhoades, D.A., Jackson, D.D., Milner, K.R., Field, E.H., & Michael, A.J. (2020). Pseudoprospective Evaluation of UCERF3-ETAS Forecasts during the 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 110, 1799-1817. SCEC Contribution 10082
  • Savran, W. H., Bayona, J. A., Iturrieta, P., Asim, K. M., Bao, H., Bayliss, K., Herrmann, M., Schorlemmer, D., Maechling, P. J., & Werner, M. J. (2022). pyCSEP: A Python Toolkit for Earthquake Forecast Developers. Seismological Research Letters: Electronic Seismologist, (submitted) SCEC Contribution 11740
  • Jordan, T. H., Callaghan, S., Graves, R. W., Wang, F., Milner, K. R., Goulet, C. A., Maechling, P. J., Olsen, K. B., Cui, Y., Juve, G., Vahi, K., Yu, J., Deelman, E., & Gill, D. (2018, 06). CyberShake Models of Seismic Hazards in Southern and Central California. Oral Presentation at Eleventh U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. SCEC Contribution 8991
  • Silva, F., Maechling, P. J., Goulet, C. A., Jordan, T. H., Graves, R. W., Olsen, K. B., Archuleta, R. J., Atkinson, G. M., Pitarka, A., Anderson, J. G., & Song, S. (2018, 06). Using the SCEC Broadband Platform for Strong Ground Motion Simulation and Validation. Poster Presentation at 11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering. SCEC Contribution 8994
  • Small, P., Gill, D., Maechling, P. J., Taborda, R., Callaghan, S., Jordan, T. H., Ely, G. P., Olsen, K. B., & Goulet, C. A. (2017). The SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model Software Framework. Seismological Research Letters, 88(5). doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220170082 . SCEC Contribution 2067
  • Maechling, P. J., Silva, F., Callaghan, S., & Jordan, T. H. (2015). SCEC Broadband Platform: System Architecture and Software Implementation. Seismological Research Letters, 86(1), 27-38. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220140125 SCEC Contribution 1981
  • Graves, R., Jordan, T.H., Callaghan, S. et al. CyberShake: A Physics-Based Seismic Hazard Model for Southern California. Pure Appl. Geophys. 168, 367–381 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-010-0161-6  SCEC Contribution 1354
  • Field, E.H., T.H. Jordan, and C.A. Cornell (2003), OpenSHA: A Developing Community-Modeling Environment for Seismic Hazard Analysis, Seismological Research Letters, 74, no. 4, p. 406-419. SCEC Contribution 715