These animations show the output from simulations of earthquake ruptures that were run on the supercomputers at Caltech's Center for Advanced Computing Research. Due to the discretization size (size of the smallest features in the models), the simulations include only the long-period motion. Motions at high frequencies (>0.5Hz) are not included. The focus of the work highlighted here is to characterize the ground shaking close to the faults (near-source ground motions).
Earthquake rupture on a vertical strike-slip fault. The animation shows a perspective view from a location above the fault, 60km away from where the rupture begins. The rupture propagates toward the observer and reaches the location at a time of 23.5s. The surface deforms with an exaggeration of 200 times and the colors change to shows how fast the ground is moving. The distance labels give the sense of scale of the model and indicate how far points are from the observer.
Earthquake rupture on a blind thrust fault that has a dip angle of 23 degrees. The top of the fault sits 8km below the ground surface. The rupture begins near the bottom of the fault and propagates toward the ground surface.
The animation shows a vertical slice through the center of the fault. The while line indicates the fault surface. The slice deforms with an exaggeration of 3000 times and the colors change to show how fast the ground is moving.
The animation shows the rate of slip on the fault (shaded portion outlined in white) and the resulting deformation on the ground surface. The colors indicate how fast the fault is slipping (shaded portion) and how fast the ground is moving. The deformation of the ground is exaggerated 1000 times. The distance labels give the sense of scale of the model and indicate how far points are from the observer.
Earthquake rupture on a thrust fault that breaks the surface and has a dip angle of 23 degrees. The rupture begins near the bottom of the fault and propagates toward the ground surface.
The animation shows a vertical slice through the center of the fault. The while line indicates the fault surface. The slice deforms with an exaggeration of 3000 times and the colors change to show how fast the ground is moving.
The animation shows the rate of slip on the fault (shaded portion outlined in white) and the resulting deformation on the ground surface. The colors indicate how fast the fault is slipping (shaded portion) and how fast the ground is moving. The deformation of the ground is exaggerated 1000 times. The distance labels give the sense of scale of the model and indicate how far points are from the observer.
