EOSC 562 Term Projects: 2011
DELIVERABLES:
(0) Tell me what you're planning to do for a project (before Feb 1).
(1) Proposal presentations (5-10 minutes) shortly after midterm break.
(2) Report due the next-to-last week of classes.
(3) Final presentations, 20 minutes, last week of classes.
Some ideas:
Model stress change due to an earthquake, and see whether positive
Coulomb stress correlates with seismicity increase, or whether major
faults have been brought close to failure. Use Coulomb code (Mac) from
the USGS and seismicity data (e.g. from a site below).
Visualization/education project - use graphics programs of your
choice for visualizing in 3D, and in a clear way, stress fields, focal
mechanisms, seismicity data, etc.
Physical demo - build something that illustrates a topic (e.g., viscoelasticity,
friction), which could be used in an undergraduate course like EOSC 256.
Use a viscoelastic earthquake cycle model to calculate surface velocities
around the Queen Charlotte Fault (or another). Compare with existing
sites. Where would you put GPS sites to observe strain (if NSERC gave us
piles of money)? Use viscoelastic earthquake cycle code (below).
Calculate peak ground acceleration, velocity, and displacement, rupture
forecast, or building response (many possibilities) using the and other
seismic hazard parameters for the real or hypothetical earthquake of your
choice using the OpenSHA portal.
Investigate whether aftershocks happen in areas of low coseismic
slip on earthquake ruptures. Estimate a and b values in the region of
your choice and compare seismic moment release with that expected from GPS
studies or fault slip rates.
Calculate change in earthquake probability given stress change from a
CSZ slip event (analytical solution, J. Dieterich, 1994) or other earthquake.
Evaluate whether lunar quakes should correlate with peak stress, or with
peak stressing rate, given size and period of tidal stress changes, and
total number of observed quakes. Estimate from this the nucleation time
and other parameters at the source (e.g., Beeler and Lockner, JGR, 2003).
Theory would work wherever periodic stress fluctuations occur. Another possibility:
tremor correlation with tides?
Invert GPS data for earthquake slip. (If you are good at Matlab and coping
with Fortran Mex files.) See me.
Examine seismic catalogues and look for systematic differences
in estimated parameters. For example, Harvard CMT versus NEIC estimates
of depth and size of large subduction zone earthquakes. Are they systematically
different? If so, why?
Volcano seismicity and deformation, e.g. during dike intrusion (here
is a Matlab code for deformation due to a Mogi point source).
Triggering of lansdlides...? relationship of volcanic eruptions to
large quakes?
I am open to "report-like" or teaching-related projects (or demos), as well
as projects in which you must calculate something.
Some codes:
Code for modeling elastic stress change due to an earthquake:
Coulomb (Mac only) via download from the USGS (includes earthquake
triggering stuff, computes Coulomb stress)
also (Smith and Sandwell): http://topex.ucsd.edu/body_force/
also boundary element elastic modeling code 3d-def (Fortran - any platform)
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/3ddef/guide.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/modeling/coulomb/download.php
Postseismic viscoelastic relaxation:
VISCO1D, by Fred Pollitz (Fortran - all platforms - Unix and
Linux in my experience). Spherical coordinates.
http://www.unavco.org/research_science/science-support/modeling/modeling.html
(also on this page, a block modeling code which can be used to model
assumed-steady interseismic deformation and block rotation for a system of
connected faults (and fault-bounded blocks)
Smith and Sandwell elastic and viscoelastic code (Cartesian coordinates):
http://topex.ucsd.edu/body_force/
Viscoelastic earthquake cycle code antiplaneviscfault.m (MATLAB) see
me.
Models interseismic (GPS) velocities around a fault. 2D (assume a very
long fault).
(VISCO1D can be used in this way, too, for a finite fault segment.)
Analytical solutions for static deformation problems:
Best resource is Segall, P., Earthquake and Volcano Deformation,
Princeton U. Press, 2010.
Some Data Sources:
Strong motion data
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/wald/smdata/sources.html#unitedstates
http://db.cosmos-eq.org/scripts/default.plx
GPS velocity data
PBO (western US and Canada) http://pboweb.unavco.org/?pageid=88
SCEC (southern California) http://epicenter.usc.edu/cmm3/
Earthquake catalogues: locations, magnitudes, focal plane solutions.
These are global
catalogues and are likely incomplete for small earthquakes (GR plot will
show this).
NEIC http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/epic/
IRIS http://www.iris.edu/SeismiQuery/events.htm
ANSS http://www.ncedc.org/anss/catalog-search.html
HARVARD http://www.globalcmt.org/CMTsearch.html
Kinematic earthquake slip models:
Worldwide earthquake slip model database from ETH Zurich - looks fairly
complete to me!
http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/srcmod
Term Project Examples: Here are some from Fall 2004:
Coulomb Stress changes on local faults due to the Hector Mine earthquake
- Joel Podgorski
Modeling strong motion from the Parkfield Earthquake using the SCEC/IT
interface - Michael Rumon
Calculating seismicity rate changes in S. California due to the
1992 Landers earthquake - Julien Chaput
2D time-dependent displacement model of the Queen Charlotte Fault
- Rob Eso
Reconstructing the source(s) of Cascadia Subduction Zone ETS events
from seismic records - Jean-Philippe Mercier
Effect of viscosity on postseismic deformation
due to relaxation of viscoelastic layers - Ali Vaghri