CRUSTAL STRUCTURE IN CALIFORNIA
<p>
The crust of southern California is among the most intensively studied parts of earth, yet even here important advances are being made with new high-quality data and more advanced numerical methods. Tape et al. (2009) required access to advanced computing facilities for thousands of wavefield simulations and data from multiple seismic networks to develop a new crustal model. The result includes local departures of 30% from a 3D community model, with features that relate to geological observations, such as sedimentary basins, exhumed batholiths, and contrasting lithologies across faults. The new model provides synthetic seismograms that match observations much more closely, even from earthquakes not used in computing the model, which will benefit seismic hazard assessment.</p>