INITIATING A NEVADA COMMUNITY VELOCITY MODEL (NV-CVM) WORKING GROUP

In January a workshop gathered geoscientists interested in constructing, contributing toward, or using community 3-D seismic velocity models (CVMs) for Nevada. The community models that this initial working group organized will have a wide variety of applications. The applications range from improving earthquake locations, calculating 3-D finite-fault wave-propagation effects, modeling source mechanisms, and interpreting tectonic structures; to hazard mapping, HAZUS input, ShakeMap verification, and 3-d modeling of ground shaking. The workshop was organized around a few central themes: 1) forming a general vision for how the Nevada CVM will be used; 2) debate about how the CVM will be constructed, and who can contribute; 3) discussion of the current state of the art in CVM representation, and how other CVM efforts (SCEC, USGS, Ca3D, USArray, Utah) organize their work; and 4) discussion of specific items contributed toward the FY09 NIW regional priorities in the USGS-NEHRP-ERP request for proposals. The results of the discussion on the specific RFP items, and any action items voted on, will be reported in this presentation. All results are posted on the web at www.seismo.unr.edu/gbcvm . The workshop has initiated multi-institutional collaborations that should result in a maintained, verifiable Nevada Community Velocity Model being available by 2011.