THE QUAKESIM FAULT DATABASE FOR CALIFORNIA

We are developing a fault database for California, USA that includes geological and paleoseismic data for the purpose of seismic hazard analysis. The QuakeSim fault database has been designed to accommodate multiple fault parameters, including observed field data, and simulated or hypothetical data. Our database includes fault location, fault geometry, geographic study locations, kinematic indicators, slip rate, rupture history, recurrence observations and measurements of displacement. The fault database also includes interpretive parameters such as fault names, strand names, segments, characteristic recurrence interval, magnitude, and frictional properties. One of the most critical aspects of our database system is that it must support interoperability for a variety of application programs, tools, and simulation packages, as well as heterogeneous data. Our database will include simulated faults, mapped faults, and hypothesized faults for testing through our simulations. The fault database currently contains data for major California faults extracted from journal articles in the field of paleoseismology, as well as two compiled data sets, which contain summary fault attributes by segment. All data are referenced to the original source. Future work will focus on continuing to populate the fault database with paleoseismic data and compiled data sets, and on interfacing the database with geophysical modeling tools.