2008 Intern Class
As you know, SCEC-VDO can be used to visualize various geo-referenced datasets and subsurface structures of California and other earthquake-prone regions. Earth scientists and educators use the movies made using SCEC-VDO to convey important concepts about earthquakes, faults, and earthquake risk reduction.
Continuing this tradition, you will develop short movies to explain some basic earthquake science concepts and to educate the audience about the complex nature of the fault systems in California. The Community Fault Model movie that Tom Jordan presented is an example of such a movie. Your movies will potentially be used for presentations, websites, and/or publications. The official movies premiere is scheduled for Friday afternoon, June 26th.
You will divide into six teams for this assignment. Each team will produce and present 3-4 movies from one general category listed below. Each movie will cover a theme listed under your choice category. (If you want to choose a theme not listed below, you must first get approval.) Each movie should be no longer than 90 seconds. As a team, develop clear and concise narratives for each of your movies. For the premiere presentation, each team member will present and narrate one movie to a general audience.
Group 1: General Plate Tectonic Theory
- How plate tectonic boundaries are located
- How earthquake depths provide clues to the relative motion between plates
- How tectonic plate boundaries are classified
- How the opening age of the Atlantic Ocean is estimated
Group 2: Visualizing faults and earthquakes
- How fault surfaces are represented
- How all faults are found in southern California
- How focal mechanisms can be determined from earthquake data
- How and why not all earthquakes occur on faults
Group 3: Tectonic processes shape the Earth's surface
- How the San Gabriel Mountains were uplifted
- How extensional forces formed the Salton Trough
- How the Gulf of California was opened
- How Lake Elsinore was formed
Group 4: The San Andreas fault system
- How the San Andreas is not strictly a strike-slip fault
- Why the San Andreas can be divided into segments
- How the major segments of the San Andreas have different recurrence intervals
- How the San Gorgonio Pass is and earthquake "traffic jam"
Group 5: Historical earthquakes
- How the 1971 San Fernando and the 1994 Northridge earthquakes compare
- On which faults major earthquakes have occurred since the 1933 Long Beach earthquake
- Where and on which faults the deadliest earthquakes in California occurred
- Why California is referred to as "earthquake country"
Group 6: Faults of Los Angeles
- How LA is a city of faults
- How fault features are expressed in an urban environment
- How the Raymond, Hollywood, and Santa Monica faults are related
- How we are "blind" to some of our faults