Urgent Supercomputing of Earthquakes

Abstract

Deadly earthquakes are events that are unpredictable, relatively rare and have a huge impact upon the lives of those who suffer their consequences. Furthermore, each earthquake has specific characteristics (location, magnitude, directivity) which, combined to local amplification and de-amplification effects, makes their outcome very singular. Empirical relations are the main methodology used to make early assessment of an earthquake's impact. Nevertheless, the lack of sufficient data registers for large events makes such approaches very imprecise. Physics-based simulators, on the other hand, are powerful tools that provide highly accurate shaking information. However, physical simulations require considerable computational resources, a detailed geological model, and accurate earthquake source information.A better early assessment of the impact of earthquakes implies both technical and scientific challenges. We propose a novel HPCbased urgent seismic simulation workflow, hereafter referred to as Urgent Computing Integrated Services for EarthQuakes (UCIS4EQ), which can deliver, potentially, much more accurate short-time reports of the consequences of moderate to large earthquakes. UCIS4EQ is composed of four subsystems that are deployed as services and connected by means of a workflow manager. This paper describes those components and their functionality. The main objective of UCIS4EQ is to produce ground-shaking maps and other potentially useful information to civil protection agencies. The first demonstrator will be deployed in the framework of the Center of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE, https://cheese.coe.eu/, last access: 12 Feb. 2020).

The EU Center of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (Cheese): Implementation, Results, and Roadmap for the Second Phase

“…PD1 [35] addressed the capability challenge of delivering physics-based regional ground shaking maps at frequencies relevant for earthquake engineering and civil protection purposes (up to 10 Hz) and within a few hours following a significant seismic event. A Software as a Service (SaaS) workflow, called Urgent Computing Integrated Services for Earthquakes (UCIS4EQ), was developed with a backend that comprises a set of processes executed in an orderly and automated manner and orchestrated by a workflow manager.…”

New 3D velocity model (mTAB3D) for absolute hypocenter location in southern Iberia and the westernmost Mediterranean.

“…Although mTAB3D shows how 3D velocity models improve the hypocenter location in complex tectonic areas, there are other fields where these models may be applied. For example, physics-based simulations include 3D velocity models in the workflow for computing ground motion predictions (Bradley, 2019;De la Puente et al, 2020). The historical and instrumental catalogs demonstrate that the westernmost Mediterranean is prone to damaging earthquakes, and mTAB3D may become an additional tool for obtaining ground-shaking maps, which are crucial for seismic hazard analysis and engineering studies.…”

Enabling dynamic and intelligent workflows for HPC, data analytics, and AI convergence

“…The Urgent Computing Integrated Services for Earthquakes (UCIS4EQ) workflow has been developed as a Pilot Demonstrator under the ChEESE Center of Excellence 2 . UCIS4EQ coordinates the execution of large 3D full waveform simulations to obtain rapid and realistic synthetic shaking estimates following an earthquake [21]. UCIS4EQ is coupled to state-of-the-art massively parallel simulation solvers so that, given sufficient HPC resources, simulations can be completed within minutes to hours.…”