The SIV-project investigates the uncertainty in earthquake source inversion through a series of verification and validation experiments.
Seismic data (often augmented with geodetic measurements) can be used to image the kinematic properties of earthquake ruptures on geological faults. Although many techniques have been developed since the 1980’s to solve this generally ill-posed inverse problem, the inherent uncertainties in the resulting earthquake source models are poorly understood.
Under the umbrella of the SIV-project, and following the original SPICE (www.spice-rtn.org) blindtest (Mai et al, 2007), several research teams in earthquake seismology participate in this series of (code) verification and (inversion) validation experiments for imaging earthquake source properties. The goal is to better understand the uncertainty in past and current source-inversion approaches, to develop strategies for rigorous uncertainty quantification for future earthquake source studies, to realize the strength and weaknesses of commonly used source-inversion methods, and the devise modern approaches that can accurately quantify earthquake rupture properties (including their uncertainties).
While the SIV project is largely based on voluntary efforts from all participants, we gladly acknowledge continuous funding for workshops by SCEC (Southern California Earthquake Center), and for development and computing support by KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology).
The SIV project, and in particular, the benchmark exercises, has been discussed in the following publication:
Mai P. M., D Schorlemmer, M. Page, J.‐P. Ampuero, K. Asano, M. Causse, S. Custodio, W. Fan, G. Festa, M. Galis, F. Gallovic, W. Imperatori, M. Käser, D. Malytskyy, R. Okuwaki, F. Pollitz, L. Passone, H.N.T. Razafindrakoto, H. Sekiguchi, S.G. Song, S.N. Somala, K.K.S. Thingbaijam, C. Twardzik, M. van Driel, J.C. Vyas, R. Wang , Y. Yagi, and O. Zielke (2016). The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project, Seismological Research Letters , 87(3), 690-708.