Exciting news! We're transitioning to the Statewide California Earthquake Center. Our new website is under construction, but we'll continue using this website for SCEC business in the meantime. We're also archiving the Southern Center site to preserve its rich history. A new and improved platform is coming soon!

Research Highlights

Mike Floyd: State of the Community Geodetic Model (more presentations)

The Community Geodetic Model (CGM) provides displacement time series and velocities of the Earth’s surface over southern California.

The Community Stress Drop Validation technical activity group is focused on resolving discrepancies in earthquake stress drop.

The Community Rheology Model (CRM) provides a three-dimensional description of the ductile rheology of southern California’s lithosphere.

Recent Publications

Little Ice Age flood events recorded in sag pond sediments in the Carrizo Plains National Monument, CA. Kirby, M. E., Hippard, S. K., Martinez, L. N., Serrato, D., Carlin, J., Bonuso, N., Akciz, S. O., & Novich, C.
The USGS 2023 Conterminous U.S. Time‐Independent Earthquake Rupture Forecast Field, E. H., Milner, K. R., Hatem, A., Powers, P. M., Pollitz, F. F., Llenos, A. L., Zeng, Y., Johnson, K. M., Shaw, B. E., McPhillips, D., Thompson, J., Shumway, A. M., Michael, A. J., Shen, Z., Evans, E. L., Hearn, E. H., Mueller, C. S., Frankel, A., Petersen, M. D., DuRoss, C. B., Briggs, R., Page, M. T., Rubinstein, J. L., & Herrick, J.
The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications Petersen, M. D., Shumway, A. M., Powers, P. M., Field, E. H., Moschetti, M. P., Jaiswal, K. S., Milner, K. R., Rezaeian, S., Frankel, A., Llenos, A. L., Michael, A. J., Altekruse, J., Ahdi, S. K., Withers, K. B., Mueller, C. S., Zeng, Y., Chase, R., Salditch, L., Luco, N., Rukstales, K. S., Herrick, J. A., Girot, D. L., Aagaard, B. T., Bender, A. M., Blanpied, M. L., Briggs, R., Boyd, O. S., Clayton, B. S., DuRoss, C. B., Evans, E. L., Haeussler, P., Hatem, A., Haynie, K. L., Hearn, E. H., Johnson, K. M., Kortum, Z. A., Kwong, N. S., Makdisi, A. J., Mason, B., McNamara, D., McPhillips, D., Okubo, P., Page, M. T., Pollitz, F. F., Rubinstein, J. L., Shaw, B. E., Shen, Z., Shiro, B., Smith, J. A., Stephenson, W. J., Thompson, E. M., Thompson Jobe, J. A., Wirth, E., & Witter, R. C.

Education Programs

Supported Opportunities for Undergraduates and Researchers to Collaborate on Earthquake Science (SOURCES) offers a remotely-mentored research experience to college students nationwide.

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) pairs a student, one-on-one, to conduct research with a pre-eminent earthquake scientist or specialist.

Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (UseIT) internship is a team-based undergraduate research program.

SCEC Transitions Program provides students and early-career scientists with resources and mentoring at major transitions in their educational and professional careers.

Recent Earthquakes

Earthquakes can happen at any time. See the USGS or SCEDC for real-time earthquake information.

Earthquake Preparedness

Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety
A step-by-step guide for staying safe before, during, and after an earthquake.

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills
SCEC is the global coordinator for the world’s largest earthquake drill, when millions of people practice self-protection and other aspects of their emergency plans.

Earthquakes in the News

The Pacific Northwest is at risk for a mega-earthquake because of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Fault lines are, of course, often the starting points for earthquakes. The San Andreas fault—which runs more than 800...
A major earthquake 2,500 years ago caused one of the largest rivers on Earth to abruptly change course, according to a...
A silent colossus lurks off the Pacific coast, threatening hundreds of miles of coastline with tsunamis and devastating...
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced a new update to its earthquake alert app that aims to give advance...
By taking a close look at the geometrical makeup of rocks where earthquakes originate, researchers at Brown University...
California's earthquake early-warning system is getting seismic upgrade, one that will allow residents to recieve more...
Southwest Research Institute will enhance models to strengthen the earthquake resilience of America’s transportation...
In newly published research, scientists from Paris, New York, and China try to explain a tectonic behavior deep under...
No one can precisely predict when an earthquake is to happen. Since the 1994 6.7-magnitude Northridge earthquake in Los...