Exciting news! We're transitioning to the Statewide California Earthquake Center. Our new website is under construction, but we'll continue using this website for SCEC business in the meantime. We're also archiving the Southern Center site to preserve its rich history. A new and improved platform is coming soon!

SCEC community: Thoughts on future earthquake research center(s)

View to the southeast along the Paxton Ranch fault, which ruptured in the M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake of July 5, 2019. Photo by Katherine Kendrick.

In September 2019, the NSF Division of Earth Sciences announced plans for an open competition of one or more earthquake research centers following SCEC5. Many members of the SCEC community reached out to provide feedback and expressed eagerness to contribute to the future of SCEC. In January 2020, NSF published a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) requesting input to formulate the solicitation from the academic community by April 1, 2020. Various groups within the SCEC community explored how we may broaden and deepen our future earthquake research endeavors by writing white papers. Others used this opportunity to share their own experiences as participants in a large, distributed earthquake research center and ideas on key characteristics that make research collaborations effective. Below is a list of white papers we received from people who responded to the NSF DCL. These ideas—and others that emerge from the SCEC community—will be discussed and refined as we develop together the intellectual scope of the next phase of the Center.

If you would like to have your DCL response to be included in the list, please email web@scec.org with PDF as submitted to NSF.

New Directions for Fundamental Earthquake Research
by Sylvain Barbot

A Collective Impact Approach for Earthquake Public Education and Preparedness
by Mark Benthien and Jason Ballmann

A Vision for the Next Earthquake Center
by Yehuda Ben-Zion

How to Make the Magic Happen: Management Models for Sustained, Agile, and Open Collaboration in an Interdisciplinary Earthquake Research Center
by Gregory Beroza and Judith Chester

Identifying and Mitigating Induced Seismicity: The Role of a California Earthquake Center
by Emily Brodsky

The Importance of High-Performance Computing in Earthquake System Science Research
by Scott Callaghan and Philip Maechling

Urgent Needs in Creating A Cyberinfrastructure for Extreme-scale Earthquake Software and Data
by Yifeng Cui

Taking a bold action to develop dynamic earthquake simulators in next earthquake research center(s)
by Benchun Duan

White Paper for the Rationale to Include Northern Baja California in SCEC
by John Fletcher, Thomas Rockwell, and Mike Oskin

The importance of expanding the Earthquake Center region to include the northern San Andreas fault system
by Gareth Funning and Roland Bürgmann

Maximizing Societal Impact of Earthquake Research through Multidisciplinary Integration and Collaboration
by Christine Goulet, Domniki Asimaki, Jack Baker, Craig Davis, Albert Kottke, Ricardo Taborda, and Ertugrul Taciroglu

Community Models in the Next Earthquake Science Center
by Elizabeth Hearn, Scott Marshall, and Laurent Montesi

Earthquakes Without Borders
by David JacksonYehuda Ben-Zion, Greg Beroza, Peter Bird, Naoshi Hirata, Thomas Jordan, Warner Marzocchi, Yosihiko Ogata, David Rhoades, William Savran, Danijel Schorlemmer, Ross Stein, John Vidale, and Maximilian Werner

Modeling earthquake source processes in California: building on SCEC success in integrating numerical, field, and laboratory studies
by Nadia Lapusta, Eric Dunham, Jean-Philippe Avouac, Gregory Beroza, Roland Bürgmann, Marine Denolle, Ahmed E. Elbanna, and Ashley Griffith

The role of hydrology in an earthquake center
by Rowena Lohman, with feedback from Emily Brodsky and Adrian Borsa

A Software Ecosystem for Earthquake System Science
by Philip MaechlingYehuda Ben-ZionJacobo BielakScott CallaghanYifeng Cui , Kim OlsenAndreas Plesch, and Ricardo Taborda

The California Continental Borderland
by Jillian M. MaloneyMark Legg, Craig Nicholson, and Thomas K. Rockwell

Experiential Learning and Mentoring to Broaden Participation in Earthquake Science
by Sally McGillGabriela Noriega, and Mark Benthien

Characterizing the Hazard of Distributed Surface Fault Rupture
by Chris Milliner, Andrea Donnellan, Rui Chen, Jean-Philippe Avouac, James Dolan, Tim Dawson, Yousef Bozorgnia, Alex Sarmiento, Chris Madugo, Albert Kottke, and Christine Goulet

Transformative Experiential Learning and Career Advancement Experiences
by Gabriela Noriega, and Mark Benthien

Laboratory experiments in the Next Earthquake Center
by François Renard (University of Oslo, Norway) with contributions from Wenlu ZhuLaurent Montesi, and Giulio di Toro (University of Padua, Italy)

Accelerating earthquake predictability research: prospective, open-science and community-driven evaluations of earthquake forecast models
by William Savran, Max Werner, Thomas Jordan, David Jackson, David Rhoades, Philip Maechling and the working group for the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability

Earthquake simulators in studies of earthquake physics and hazard
by Bruce Shaw

Studying Exhumed Faults Is Necessary for Understanding Earthquake Physics
by Randy Williams, Jamie Kirkpatrick​, and Christie Rowe