This visualization illustrates some of the rupture and wave propagation phenomena of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault in Southern California. It shows how an earthquake originating 60 miles south of Palm Springs can end up shaking Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara minutes after the original fault rupture. The animation captures more than four minutes of complex dynamic rupture and wave propagation. Nearly 12 terabytes of earthquake simulation data was used to generate the animation.

Video: DOE SciDAC Program/Amit Chourasia, Kim Olsen, Steven Day, Luis Dalguer, Yifeng Cui, Jing Zhu, David Okaya, Phil Maechling and Thomas H. Jordan