2009 SCEC-VDO Production

The Grand Challenge of the 2009 Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (USEIT) Program is to deliver Southern California Earthquake Center - Virtual Display of Objects (SCEC-VDO) images and animations of faults and earthquake sequences to SCEC, the Earthquake Country Alliance, and other virtual organizations via a content management system that captures the metadata and guides the user. For the production team, the primary focus was on the development and delivery of useable visualizations using SCEC-VDO as well as the creation of metadata associated with the visualizations. The production team was also tasked with helping to improve SCEC-VDO by identifying limitations and bugs within the software. During the research into the individual alliances, within the Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA), the production team encountered several challenges. These challenges included the need for relocated earthquake catalogs, a visualization of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a rubric for creating consistent SCEC-VDOs, a uniform format for gathering and submitting metadata, and several limitations within the software. One of the challenges was met by researching and locating better datasets. Once the datasets were obtained, the production team converted them into formats that were compatible with SCEC-VDO or they were sent to the development team for implementation into SCEC-VDO. The result was a new relocated earthquake catalog and a visualization of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. A rubric and metadata sheet was also created for current and future SCEC USEIT interns with the goal of creating both professional and consistently accurate movies. After overcoming these challenges, the production team was able to produce professional movies. Two movies were created for SCEC scientists, four movies for the alliances, and three movies for other virtual organizations.