3D earthquake intensity maps

On July 5, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rumbled beneath the Searles Valley in California’s Mojave Desert.

The U.S. Geological Survey mapped its intensity as it rippled across Southern California.

Here’s that data modeled in 3D.

Instructions

1. Download the intensity shapefiles from USGS
2. Delete excess columns and converted the map to GeoJSON with QGIS
3. Rasterize the vector data with gdal_rasterize

gdal_rasterize -a PARAMVALUE -te -119.6 33.5 -115.5 38 -ts 500 500 mmi.geojson mmi.tif

4. Convert it to a sanitized STL file with R’s rayshader package

library(rayshader)
mmitif = raster::raster("mmi.tif")
mmimat = matrix(raster::extract(mmitif, raster::extent(mmitif)), nrow = ncol(mmitif), ncol = nrow(mmitif))
mmimat %>%
  sphere_shade(texture = "desert") %>%
  add_shadow(ray_shade(mmimat, zscale = 0.005, maxsearch = 300), 0.45) %>% 
  add_shadow(ambient_shade(mmimat, zscale=0.01), 0.5) %>%
  plot_3d(mmimat, zscale = 0.01, fov = 0, theta = 135, zoom = 0.85, phi = 25, windowsize = c(1000, 800))
render_snapshot()
save_3dprint("mmi.stl", maxwidth = 4, unit = "in")