2010 Grand Challenge

The 2010 SCEC UseIT interns were given the grand challenge to develop SCEC-VDO in a manner that allows them to simulate a seismic crisis and yield more information about operational earthquake forecasting, which is a short-term forecast (not a prediction) of earthquakes in certain areas based on a variety of factors ranging from fault types, recurrence intervals, and recent seismic activity. In order to complete the grand challenge, the interns split into groups that collaborated to complete their tasks and responsibilities. SCEC-VDO was developed to include a real-time plug-in, which was used to create animations of the El Mayor-Cucapah sequence. The content management system, Drupal, was used in order to distribute the animations, as well as other information to aid the general public’s knowledge about earthquakes and operational forecasting.