Caltech Seismological Laboratory

09/01/2026

Another Seismo Lab presentation from Samantha Stanley at today!

Presenting “Representations of earthquake prediction, forecasting, and early warning in popular media,” examining how earthquake early warning, aftershock forecasting, and prediction are portrayed in fictional films.

How does Hollywood represent earthquake science, and how does that compare with the real thing? https://central.scec.org/publication/15309

09/01/2026

Another Seismo Lab presentation at today!

Samantha Stanley presents “Great social science for great earthquakes,” an interactive poster session crowdsourcing ideas from SCEC participants about the social factors that come into play in the context of a large earthquake.

Stop by and add your ideas to the conversation! https://central.scec.org/publication/15371

08/31/2026

Postdoc Jingchuan Wang, who's looking at simulating tsunamis generated by seismically triggered landslides and Grad student Qian Shi, who's looking at conditions for runaway ruptures during reservoir operations both gave lightning talks at SCEC today, a great way to highlight their work!

08/31/2026

Another Seismo Lab presentation at today!

Tom Heaton presents “There are no Earthquake Cycles,” exploring how earthquake ruptures occur as localized pulses of slip that are dynamically chaotic, and what that means for how we think about earthquake behavior and recurrence.

08/30/2026

Weekly Earthquake Stats: 23 Aug 2026 - 29 Aug 2026. There were 600 events this week ranging from M -0.21 to 3.96. Check out our weekly playback map and visit www.scsn.org for detailed information.

08/30/2026

The 2026 SCEC Annual Meeting begins today in Palm Springs! Throughout the conference, we’ll be highlighting some of the Seismo Lab members presenting their latest research, so keep an eye out.

First up is Yijian Zhou, from the labs of Jean-Philippe Avouac and Allen Husker, presenting “Toward an AI-Enhanced Near-Real-Time Earthquake Cataloging System for the Southern California Seismic Network.”

This work presents the development of an AI-enhanced framework for producing near-real-time SCSN earthquake catalogs.

Learn more:

Citation Zhou, Y., Tam, R., Tepp, G., Bhadha, R., Yu, E., Ross, Z. E., Zhan, Z., & Husker, A. L. (2026, 08). Toward an AI-Enhanced Near-Real-Time Earthquake Cataloging System for the Southern California Seismic Network. Poster Presentation at 2026 SCEC Annual Meeting.

08/28/2026

In observation of National Red Wine Day, this week's site is a little closer to home, in the Athenaeum’s wine cellar on the Caltech Campus! Due to its convenient location Margaret occasionally stopped by on her tours. It isn’t often that you see cases of fine wine sharing a solid platform with seismic equipment!

08/26/2026

Meet Nadira Sose, a Seismo Lab Staff Member who works as a Technical Documentational Analyst for SIS!!

08/25/2026

Earlier today, Margaret Vinci was recognized by the ShakeAlert System Executive Committee and the ShakeAlert Commissioners, Education, Outreach, and Technical Engagement Core Committee for 33 years of exemplary service to earthquake preparedness, safety, and communication!

The recognition is incredibly well deserved. Margaret helped establish the West Coast ShakeOut Drill and has served in numerous leadership roles within , the Earthquake Country Alliance, the Southern California Seismic Network, and many other organizations. She has also been instrumental in securing funding for earthquake science, engineering, and the SCSN.

Throughout her 33 year career, Margaret has helped make earthquake science understandable and accessible to people of all ages. Through MANY Seismo Lab tours for students and important visitors and appearances in television, radio, and documentary interviews, she has educated and inspired generations. Her work behind the scenes has also supported and strengthened our entire Lab community.

Margaret will be retiring next month, so please join us in congratulating her on this well earned recognition and an extraordinary career!

08/23/2026

Weekly Earthquake Stats: 16 Aug 2026 - 22 Aug 2026. There were 466 events this week ranging from M -0.04 to 3.64. Check out our weekly playback map and visit www.scsn.org for detailed information.