Established in 1997, the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) promotes collaboration among programs and institutions to improve strong-motion measurements, to solve mutual problems with instrumentation and data, and to assist in strong-motion data dissemination. Since its founding, COSMOS has become internationally known for its Virtual Data Center (VDC), which provides access to ground motions recorded anywhere in the world. Since 2005, COSMOS has also hosted a highly-regarded annual Technical Session to provide a link between the ground-motion, seismic code development, and geotechnical and structural engineering communities. Recently, COSMOS has initiated work to fill an important gap related to guidelines and standards for collecting, archiving, and providing public access to strong-motion recording and associated metadata of engineering significance.
The core of the Earth is like a ball of very hot metals. (4000 degrees F. to 9000 degrees F.) The outer core is so hot that the metals in it are all in the liquid state. The outer core is located about 1800 milesbeneath the crust and is about 1400 miles thick. The outer core is composed of the melted metals nickel and iron.
The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive is a database of significant, publicly-funded research and development literature, photographs, data, and software in earthquake, structural, and geotechnical engineering. It includes full text for EERC, SEMM, and PEER reports published at UC Berkeley, the NISEE software library, and images from EQIIS.
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) is the international organization dedicated to advancing, promoting, and communicating knowledge of the Earth system, its space environment, and the dynamical processes causing change.
Through its constituent Associations, Commissions, and services, IUGG convenes international assemblies and workshops, undertakes research, assembles observations, gains insights, coordinates activities, liaises with other scientific bodies, plays an advocacy role, contributes to education, and works to expand capabilities and participation worldwide.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a hub of transdisciplinary research and digital scholarship where University of Illinois faculty, staff, and students, and collaborators from around the globe, unite to address research grand challenges for the benefit of science and society. Current research focus areas include digital agriculture, bio and health sciences, earth and environment, astronomy, plus many more.
The Center also provides integrated cyberinfrastructure—computing, software, data, networking, and visualization resources and expertise that are essential to the work of scientists, engineers, and scholars at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and across the country.
NCSA is also an engine of economic impact for the state and the nation, helping companies address computing and data challenges and providing hands-on training for undergraduate and graduate students and post-docs.