Intro to SCEC-VDO
SCEC Virtual Display of Objects (SCEC-VDO)
Contents
Purpose of Software
SCEC-VDO allows users to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information about surface and subsurface structures of California and other earthquake-prone regions.
Uses in SCEC Research
An increasing number of earthquake scientists, educators, and policy-makers are using SCEC-VDO to convey important concepts about earthquakes, faults, and earthquake risk reduction. It is an important tool for visualizing components of the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecasts (UCERF), and is used by researchers at Harvard University to validate the SCEC Community Fault Model (CFM)
Key Concepts
SCEC-VDO is an object-oriented, open source software that enables interactive, 4D display of diverse geo-referenced datasets for analysis, presentation, and publication. Examples of datasets that can be visualized using SCEC-VDO include earthquake events, hypocenters and epicenters, fault systems and fault sections, three-dimensional surface images, tectonic plates and their vectors of motion, as well as political boundaries, cities, highways. Users can customize legends and dynamic text labels, and filter data spatially and temporally for analysis and comparisons. SCEC-VDO has the built-in capabilities for taking snapshots and making animations for use in presentations and publications.
Use during SCEC-ERI Workshop
- View Basement and Moho Surfaces
The basement and moho files can be loaded in with the Community Fault Model plugin by hitting the "+" button and selecting the relevant files, then finding them and displaying them in the list above that button.
- Displaying Velocity Model Profiles (Horizontal or Vertical)
Users can extract material properties from SCEC Velocity models using the UCVM software. Once a UCVM output text file exists, users can view the material properties in SCEC-VDO.
The UCVM slices can be loaded with the UCVM Slice Viewer plugin under "Display -> Surface Imagery". Hit the "+" button at the bottom of the plugin and select the UCVM data file. You can change which dataset/color palette are used with the parameters above, but you must hit "Update Display" before any changes will be made. You can load multiple files at once, just hit the "+" button again.
The color scale used by SCEC-VDO is selectable. There is an annotated color scale with values at the top of the UCVM plugin.
Full Documentation
More information can be found at the SCEC Internships website and the Working Group on California Earthquake Predictability website.
