The C-CIES Team found this Nature news article interesting: AI predicts how many earthquake aftershocks will strike — and their strength(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02934-6) Models trained on large data sets of seismic events can estimate the number of aftershocks better than conventional models do.(https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02934-6) Let us know what you think!

Please join the UTEP Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences for the 2023 Earth Science Celebration, details below!

In August, the C-CIES Team hit the road for an all-hands meeting in Albuquerque, NM hosted by Dr. Yolanda Lin (https://www.yolandaclin.com/)of the Univeristy of New Mexico (UNM).(https://www.unm.edu/) The team traveled from across the country via planes, trains, automobiles and braved the unknown, leaving their family and pets behind to gather at the UNM campus Physics & Astromy and Interdisciplinary Science (http://news.unm.edu/news/pais-officially-opens-with-virtual-ribbon-cutting-ceremony)(PAIS) building for a two-day intenstive workshop. The facility was a perfect location to forge new collaborations and spur the creative juices. The C-CIES Team, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Aaron Velasco and Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Jeff Weidner and Dr. Marianne Karplus, had an ambitious agenda not only focusing on the current Track I catalyst project, but to lay the groundwork for the upcoming Track II proposal due in March 2024.(https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21628/nsf21628.htm) Most of the team arrived Wednesday afternoon/evening and gathered at Dr. Lin's home, which allowed the team time to catch up and network with other local researchers from the Albuquerque area. This was also an opportunity for the team to connect socially and rest prior to the rigorous agenda planned for the next two days. Thursday morning the team met at 8 a.m. sharp in the PAIS builiding. Dr. Velasco outline the agenda for the next two days, and went over the the goals, online tools, and resources being utlized for the meeting. There were also a number of team members participating virtually, so all collaborations and documents were electronic and had online collaboration capabilities. The virtual team members also had the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions that were happening in person. The agenda was separated into blocks with specific goals. Each session was led by different C-CIES team members. Thursday morning the team focused on the current project, specfically the work being done on the Pilot Projects.(https://www.c-cies.org/pilot-projects-1) The Pilot Projects are small research grants under the C-CIES umbrella that focus on answering specific research questions of interest, while engaging the community through the framework of Collective Impact.(https://www.c-cies.org/collective-impact) There were a total of four presentations that allowed each Pilot Project to provide an overview of the progress they have made during the prior months as well as field questions from the entire team. After the Pilot Project presentations were completed, the team spilt into small groups a breakout session. Each Pilot Project made up a small group and included a facilitator that guided a group evaluation and feedback. This allowed everyone the opportunity to collaborate, brainstorm, and provide input to address any issues they are facing with their Pilot projects. The team continued working through lunch, reviewing C-CIES mission, vision, and goals as well as the phases and timeline expected for the current project. Later that afternoon, the team shifted gears to focus on the upcoming proposal identifying key information and providing vital input to key questions. The C-CIES team often focuses their efforts in the form of co-creation and collaboration. Day two had the team putting pen to paper, literally. The overall outcomes of the meeting were phenomenal with huge strides made toward the future of the Center. Everyone who participated came to the table with feedback and new ideas. This team IS the Center, no matter what city they find themselves in. Pictured from left to right: Steve Jaume, John Ebel, Zhigang Peng, Divya Chandrasekhar, Yolanda Lin, Aaron Velasco, Marianne Karplus, Jeff Weidner, Sue Bilek, Eric Jones, Monica Alvillar, and Amirhossein Chegini-Telegrafchi. Virtual participant pictured: Alan Kafka Virtual participants not pictured: Elizabeth Vanacore, Conevery Bolton Valencius, Iris Tien, Anne-Marie Nunez, Tiegan Hobbs

Summer Research Students Working at Weston Observatory on C-CIES Pilot Project 2 and Related Seismology Studies   As part of C-CIES Pilot Project 2 activities, students ranging from high school through graduate school worked on various seismology research projects at BC's Weston Observatory. Of particular interest to C-CIES was working with several of the students on a study of the hypothesized location of a large (~M6.5) earthquake thought to have occurred in 1638 in southern NH. That location is also delineated by a major zone of current seismicity (which might be aftershocks of the 1638 earthquake). This provides an opportunity to maybe "catch" new earthquake activity in that zone using Raspberry Shakes (RSs) to augment data from other (broadband) stations operating in New England. Such improved monitoring in that area could elucidate earthquake processes there, and possibly improve our understanding of the 1638 earthquake. Our students worked on cross-correlation analysis of earthquake data in that study area, cross-correlating seismograms from different earthquakes recorded at the same RS station. The results show some cases of high cross-correlations of P waves at two RS stations, which suggests that we can use the data from RS stations in a relative location analysis to help us identify earthquake characteristics such as the fault structure on which the events occurred. The quality of the RS data we were able to use for this cross-correlation analysis, and for earthquake monitoring in the study area in general, shows the scientific utility of combining RS data with other (broadband) station data in studies of the Central and Eastern US. Follow Weston Observatory (https://twitter.com/Weston_Quakes?s=20)on Twitter (X) for the latest information!

Dr. Yolanda Lin from the University of New Mexico and Dr. Divya Chandrasekhar from the University of Utah attended the 48th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Boulder, Colorado. This year's theme was Ethical Action for Disaster Risk Reduction.(https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/theme) Dr. Lin and Dr. Chandrasekhar represented the C-CIES Team with a poster:(https://hazards.colorado.edu/workshop/2023/abstract/poster-session#building-inclusive-excellence-through-the-center-for-collective-impact-in-earthquake-science) Building Inclusive Excellence Through the Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science. They engaged with other attendees to share their experiences with the project and plans for the future. Abstract: The Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science (C-CIES), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), aims to address fundamental science questions related to natural hazards through a novel approach that involves all stakeholders. The C-CIES mission is to increase societal resilience to earthquakes through collective impact (CI) hazard research. Its vision is to become an interdisciplinary research center rooted in equity, diversity, and engagement that helps communities prepare for, withstand, and recover from earthquakes and associated hazards. The center has eight core values: scientific integrity, equity, excellence, diversity, access, justice, inclusion, and collective impact. The center has six goals: (1) Advance basic hazard science and engineering; (2) Establish a foundation for a shared, value-driven understanding of science; (3) Respond to the needs of all communities through user-inspired research; (4) Grow to national prominence; (5) Recruit, retain, and train the next generation of diverse, interdisciplinary scientists; and (6) Develop a framework for impactful geoscience that bridges the science-to-policy gap and improves resilience to geohazards.     C-CIES adopts the CI model, which brings together a network of community stakeholders to build a common agenda, provide centralized support, continuous communication, mutually reinforcing activities, and develop shared measurement. C-CIES science is currently undertaking pilot projects that address faulting, High-Impact Low-Probability earthquakes, and their impact. Using CI, we aim to change the way geoscience is conducted by answering fundamental community-driven science questions that will have a broad, positive impact on all communities.

On 02/01/2023 Dr. Velasco, Dr. Weidner, Dr. Hurtado, and Dr. Ayala-Cortez took a group of representatives from UMC, Texas Tech, CIELO-G, and UTEP students to visit a section of the East Franklin Mountain Escarpment that had previously been trenched by Dr. Hurtado. There has been earthquake activity in west Texas that has been felt by some people in El Paso. These events have led us to engage community partners to discuss what earthquake risks El Paso might be facing if an earthquake were to occur in our city. Alex Dominguez, a graduate student at The University of Texas at El Paso and a CIELO-G Fellow will be tasked with studying this area. We are hoping to learn more from him in the coming months. By engaging the community through education and outreach, we hope to learn as much from them as they do from us. Planning efforts are also underway to participate in the Great Shake Out in October. This is a world wide drill where communities come together and practice what to do in an earthquake situation. Education is key and we can't wait to share more about our planning efforts!

On January 12 the C-CIES Team officially convened for our first in-person meeting in El Paso, TX at The University of Texas at El Paso. Up to this point we had been working together virtually since we have team members from all over the country from Boston, to Salt Lake City, all the way to Puerto Rico. We were excited to be able to host the team at UTEP and utilize the Interdisciplinary Research Building (IDRB). This is a brand, 150,000-square-foot research facility, which a great auditorium we were able to use for our 2-day meeting. We also had team members who were unable to travel to El Paso, but the technologies in the IRDB allowed us to connect almost all of our team members during the meeting. Along with finalizing the core elements of our projects, we spent some time exploring El Paso. Out of town team members got a chance to see the Dinosaur Tracks, visit Scenic Drive at sunset, view the East Franklin Mountain Fault (EFMF), and end the day having dinner at an El El Paso staple, Carlos & Mickey's. The EFMF was especially important because it will be the center piece of one of the upcoming pilot projects. There will be three other pilot projects that will be launched in the coming months. We're so excited to tell you more about them, stay tuned!

We want to hear from you! Feel free to add GIFs, videos, hashtags and more to your posts and comments. Get started by commenting below and letting us know what you'd like to learn more about! If you've made it this far, we are going to assume you know a little bit about the Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science or C-CIES, pronounced C-C-S or si, si es! Our Mission: To increase societal resilience to earthquakes through collective impact hazard research. Our Vision: An interdisciplinary research center rooted in equity, diversity, and engagement that helps communities prepare for, withstand, and recover from earthquakes and associated hazards. The Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science (C‐CIES), a catalyst project funded by the National Science Foundation, is working toward becoming a full‐fledged interdisciplinary research center that focuses on high‐impact, low‐probability events, with an emphasis on community engagement. C‐CIES will develop strategies for better identifying, and potentially quantifying, seismic hazards and will inform many aspects of fundamental earthquake science of broad importance. Using collective impact, C‐CIES’s research will prioritize the needs of vulnerable populations that have been historically underserved by current earthquake science, engineering, and public policy. To accomplish its vision and mission, C‐CIES will solicit and fund pilot projects that will address critical earthquake science questions with strong social impact and community engagement plans. The pilot projects will be evaluated using the five elements of collective impact: common agenda, mutually reinforcing activities, shared metrics, constant communication, and a backbone organization. These pilot projects will serve as case studies to help develop a strategic plan for how to structure the new center. The projects will also examine the novel topic of citizen science of hazards, along with the ripple effects of diversifying citizen science. We believe a new center using this approach will transform how earthquake and associated hazard science is being conducted, leading to fundamental breakthroughs that will profoundly and positively impact communities throughout the country. Who are "we" you may be asking yourself, well let me introduce you to our team: PI: Aaron Velasco, The University of Texas at El Paso Co‐PI: Jeffrey Weidner, The University of Texas at El Paso Co‐PI: Marianne Karplus, The University of Texas at El Paso Susan Bilek, New Mexico Tech Michael Brudzinski, Miami University Divya Chandrasekhar, University of Utah John Ebel, Boston College Tiegan Hobbs, Geological Survey of Canada Jose Hurtado, The University of Texas at El Paso Steven Jaume, College of Charleston Eric Jones, UT Health Science Center at Houston Alan Kafka, Boston College Yolanda Lin, University of New Mexico Anne‐Marie Nunez, The University of Texas at El Paso Kristine Pankow, University of Utah Zhigang Peng, Georgia Institute of Technology Alexandros Savvaidis, The University of Texas at Austin Iris Tien, Georgia Institute of Technology Conevery Valencius, Boston College Elizabeth Vanacore, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Staff: Monica Alvillar, The University of Texas at El Paso The purpose of the forum is to give the community a space to add their thoughts, questions, ideas, suggestions and generally be a space for you to engage with us and your fellow community members. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2225395. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.