Imperial Valley Dark Fiber Project: 16 Seismic Event Waveforms from Brawley Zone

May 14, 2021 recordings of a 3-hour seismic swarm in Southern California's Brawley Seismic Zone. The dataset contains waveform data for 16 local events, six from the Southern California Seismic Network catalog and ten detected via a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) array. It was produced by the Department of Energy's Imperial Valley Dark Fiber project and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze dense seismic waveforms based on ~6,900 virtual sensor channels along a fiber cable.
• Study swarm-like event sequences based on 16 events from a compact rupture zone.
• Model strike-slip fault behavior based on events located on a fault with defined strike and dip.
• Compare traditional and DAS-based event detection based on the mix of SCSN and DAS-identified events.

Strengths

• Waveform data from a dense array of ~6,900 virtual sensors with ~4-meter spacing.
• Contains 16 precisely located events with magnitudes (ML 0.78 to 2.03), depths (8.9-9.4 km), and a defined fault plane.
• Data is from a specific, well-documented sequence on May 14, 2021, in a known seismic zone.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset covers a single 3-hour sequence, limiting temporal scope.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy

Collection Method

Deployed a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) interrogator on a ~28 km dark fiber cable between Calipatria and Imperial, California.

Time Range

May 14, 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-13 16:20:27.063579; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Brawley Seismic Zone and Brawley Geothermal Field, Southern California, USA