Investigating Source Mechanisms of Intermediate-Depth Earthquakes Across Various Tectonic Regions

Shanna Chu, Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

Usage Details

I will improve current understanding of intermediate-depth earthquakes, which occur in a regime where normal earthquake physics models break down. Current methods of studying earthquake source properties use over-simplified physical models due to computational cost. Using Blue Waters' resources, I will more accurately compute and bound earthquake source properties using hierarchical Bayesian models on large datasets from tectonically diverse regions, running a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm. I will use simulations from the waveqlab3d wave propagation code to validate the physics of models used in data-fitting. By better estimating source properties, I hope to constrain the energetics and mechanisms of intermediate-depth earthquakes.