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This wiki documents SCEC's UCVM source code repository for UCVM v25.7. This version of UCVM integrates new velocity models, improves the installation proces, and incorporated GitHub Actions for CI testing workflow.
The SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software is used to access information, including estimated Vp and Vs seismic wave velocities and density, about the earth's crust.
UCVM provides seismic velocity information for several California regions. Seismic velocities of rocks and sediments at shallow depths determine how strongly an area will shake. By assigning velocities to rock types in the 3-D geologic model, geologists can gain an understanding of the extent of areas of low shear velocity that are most likely to experience localized strong shaking and future earthquake damage. An important application for UCVM is for use in computer simulations of California earthquakes.
The Unified Community Velocity Model (UCVM) software framework is a collection of software tools designed to provide a standard interface to multiple, alternative, California velocity models. UCVM development is an interdisciplinary research collaboration involving geoscientists, computer scientists, and software developers. UCVM is used in high resolution 3D wave propagation simulations for California.
A major update in UCVM v25.7 is the adoption of PROJ 8.1.1. As a result, this version no longer includes the [CenCal](https://github.com/SCECcode/cencal) model, which depends on an earlier version of PROJ. However, the newer USGS San Francisco Bay Region velocity model v21.1—an updated version of the CenCal model—is available in this release.
SCEC has also developed several high-resolution, large-scale regional velocity models for use in CyberShake simulations, including CS173, CS173-H, and CS248. These models are maintained in UCVM to support reproducibility of previous CyberShake runs. Because of their size (over 100 GB) and their specific design for CyberShake workflows, they are not included in the standard UCVM distribution.
If you need access to these models, please contact the UCVM development team at [software@scec.org](mailto:software@scec.org), or open an issue on the [UCVM GitHub repository](https://github.com/SCECcode/ucvm), and we will assist you with installation.
This version of UCVM includes several new velocity models developed by collaborating research organizations, including the USGS, University of Wisconsin, LLNL, and others. For authoritative information about how these models were developed and guidance on their appropriate use, please refer to the original model developers.
Velocity models in UCVM are identified by both a descriptive name and an abbreviation used in UCVM commands. Users should first locate the model of interest by its descriptive name, then use the corresponding abbreviation to access it within UCVM. The list below provides each available model along with its descriptive name and UCVM abbreviation.
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This UCVM github repository is for the UCVM core package that provides the UCVM command line interfaces and linkable APIs.
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These CVM velocity models are managed in their own github repositories
- CVM-S4 (cvms)
- CVM-S4.26 (cvms5)
- CVM-S4.26.M01 (cvmsi)
- CVM-H v15.1.1 (cvmh)
- CVM-H v15.1.1 Basins (Inner Borderland Basin, LA Basin, Ridge Basin, Salton Trough Basin, San Bernardino Basin, San Gabriel Basin, Santa Barbara Channel Basin, Santa Maria Basin, Ventura Basin)
- ALBACORE (albacore)
- CANVAS (canvas)
- [CCA cca)
- San Francisco Bay Velocity Model (sfcvm)
- San Jacinto Fault Zone (sjfz)
- SSIP Coachella Valley (cvlsu)
- SSIP Imperial Valley (ivlsu)
- UW Statewide (uwlinca)
- UW San Francisco Bay (uwsfbcvm)
- Wasatch Front Utah (wfcvm)
The following models are not distributed as part of the standard UCVM distribution, because of their large size and limited utility. Please contact UCVM developers if you need access to these:
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UCVM matplotlib-based plotting scripts are located in the UCVM plotting package github repository. These scripts currently use Python 3.
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Scripts for retrieving and running UCVM Docker images are located in the UCVM Docker repository github repository.
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Scripts for access and manipulate the UCVM metadata files generated by the UCVM core and by the UCVM plotting scripts UVM metadata utilities.
UCVM is distributed as open-source scientific software. It can be installed compiled and run on most Linux-based computer systems if the system includes software development tools including Python, C, and Fortran compilers, and other software tools.
- UCVM Github wiki is the main UCVM documentation.
- UCVM SCECpedia Wiki Documentation contains additional documentation describing previous versions of UCVM.
Issue Tracking:
- GitHub: UCVM Github Issues Email:
- Contact: software [at] scec [dot] usc [dot] edu
UCVM was developed with support from National Science Foundation (NSF), US Geological Survey (USGS), and other sources.
Contributors to UCVM development are listed in the Credits file.
References, citations, and acknowledgements help us obtain continued support for the development of the UCVM software. If you use the UCVM software in your research, please include the citation of the UCVM paper in the references/bibliography section of your publication. This is more effective than you providing in-text acknowledgements.
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Preferred Reference: Small, P., Gill, D., Maechling, P. J., Taborda, R., Callaghan, S., Jordan, T. H., Ely, G. P., Olsen, K. B., & Goulet, C. A. (2017). The SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model Software Framework. Seismological Research Letters, 88(5). doi:10.1785/0220170082
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Preferred Citation: The SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model Software, Release Date: 6 November 2021, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5651277
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Example Acknowlegement: We would like to acknowledge the use of the SCEC Unified Community Velocity Model Software (Small 2017) in this research.
The UCVM software is released using a BSD-3 open-source license. Please see the LICENSE.md file for distribution license and disclaimers. The underlying velocity models may be released under their own open-source license.
