The MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, will generate physical simulations of earthquakes to provide key data on seismic hazard in a large-scale scenario, as part of the drill organised by the Government of Mexico together with the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
On 19 September 2025, the ChEESE Centre of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth will apply urgent computing workflows during Mexico’s National Earthquake Drill, one of the largest preparedness exercises worldwide. The drill is organised by the Government of Mexico, together with the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Mexican National Seismological Service (SSN).
This year’s edition marks the 40th anniversary of the devastating 1985 Michoacán earthquake and will recreate a magnitude 8.1 scenario with widespread impacts. Using the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), a ChEESE partner, researchers aim to demonstrate how simulation methods developed within the project can support rapid response to earthquakes in highly seismic regions such as Mexico.
“This exercise will allow us to put into practice the urgent computing workflows we have developed under operational conditions. The results could prove valuable in supporting the first response actions to disasters with potentially severe social impact,” says Marisol Monterrubio Velasco, researcher at BSC and scientific lead of the exercise.
For Dr Monterrubio, the collaboration between Europe and Mexico carries special significance. Born in Mexico City, she studied Physics at UNAM before completing a postdoctoral stay in Computational Physics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Since 2016 she has worked at BSC as part of the Wave Phenomena Group, focusing on computational seismology and the use of HPC-based physical simulations for earthquake scenarios in projects such as ChEESE (both its first and second phases), eFlows4HPC, and DT-GEO. The SSN also highlights the importance of this collaboration.
“It is the first time we carry out a drill of this type with BSC and European projects. It is an excellent exercise to refine procedures and, in the future, to implement them in an operational setting,” explains Arturo Iglesias, director of the SSN.
A pioneering step in European supercomputing for emergencies
Conducted in real conditions and in direct collaboration with the SSN and the company Mondaic, the BSC exercise represents a pioneering milestone for the European supercomputing ecosystem.
“This is the first urgent supercomputing protocol for emergencies in Europe. Until now, there had only been isolated cases, such as the La Palma volcanic eruption simulated at BSC in 2021, but without an established operational framework,” notes Josep de la Puente, leader of the Wave Phenomena Group at BSC.
A multidisciplinary team – comprising physicists, engineers, computer scientists, seismologists and geophysicists from the BSC CASE and Computer Sciences departments – will take part in the drill.
This urgent and semi-automatic computing capability represents a paradigm shift in access to supercomputing, providing immediate services in situations where timely simulations can guide life-saving decisions. Once operational, such protocols could improve resilience and mitigate the impacts of natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes and floods, ultimately helping to save lives and reduce economic losses.
“Supercomputing allows us to address problems previously out of reach, both in terms of speed and resolution. With near real-time simulations, we can provide authorities with valuable tools for faster and more effective decision-making during emergencies,” adds Arnau Folch, researcher at GEO3BCN-CSIC and coordinator of the DT-GEO and ChEESE-2P projects.
European urgent computing technologies in a Latin American national drill
Thanks to the architecture of MareNostrum 5 and the workflows developed within ChEESE and DT-GEO, this exercise marks one of the first direct collaborations bringing European urgent supercomputing technologies into a Latin American national drill.
BSC will use real-time seismic alert data provided by the Mexican National Seismological Service (including hypocentre, focal mechanisms and receiver stations) to run complex numerical models and generate semi-automatically synthetic seismograms, ground-shaking maps, and key hazard parameters such as peak ground acceleration (PGA) and spectral acceleration (SA). These products will complement real measurements, help characterise areas lacking seismic stations, and support the SSN in preparing official reports with clear visualisations of expected impacts.
The exercise will also validate technical and operational aspects, including:
- Automatic data transfer between SSN and European HPC facilities
- Evaluation of time-to-solution for near real-time simulations
- Benchmarking against existing operational tools in Mexico
- Visualisation of seismic wave propagation through maps and videos
During the drill, BSC will have urgent access to over 50 GPU nodes of MareNostrum 5 (around 5% of its accelerated partition). This exceptional allocation reproduces the conditions of an emergency computing request and is a pioneering step in Europe, testing the ability of a Tier-0 supercomputing facility to deliver rapid response.
The Mexican National Seismological Serviceis part of the ChEESE Industry and Users Board (IUB), which brings together public institutions, monitoring agencies, industry and other stakeholders. The IUB ensures that services developed in ChEESE meet real user needs and foster knowledge transfer into operational contexts, as in this exercise.
Researchers Georgina Díez, Marisol Monterrubio and Leonarda Isabel Esquivel Mendiola with the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer at BSC.
Real-world testing in Mexico
Every year, Mexico holds national earthquake drills that mobilise millions of people across the country. This 19 September marks the 40th anniversary of the devastating 1985 Michoacán earthquake, which left more than 10,000 dead, tens of thousands injured, and over 250,000 people homeless, becoming one of the most tragic disasters in the nation’s history.
The next drill takes on special significance, as it will recreate a hypothetical scenario with the same characteristics as the original event: a magnitude 8.1 earthquake with its epicentre in Lázaro Cárdenas, on the Pacific coast in the south of Michoacán state. According to the scenario, the earthquake would affect several states, including Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico City, Colima, Oaxaca, Morelos, Estado de México, Guanajuato, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Veracruz.
For the first time, the Government of Mexico will also test its nationwide mobile alert system. At 12:00 local time on 19 September (20:00 CEST), a message is scheduled to be sent simultaneously to more than 80 million phones across the country. In addition to mobile alerts, the seismic warning system will be activated through 14,491 loudspeakers installed in Mexico City and in the states of México, Morelos, Puebla, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tlaxcala.
In response, citizens will be required to evacuate homes, workplaces and schools, gathering at designated safe meeting points for earthquakes or other emergencies. As Arturo Iglesias, director of the SSN, explains:
“Drills serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they keep alive the collective memory of major earthquakes, reminding us that citizen preparedness saves lives. On the other, they open the door to innovations that enable us to anticipate impacts more effectively and refine response procedures.”
Within the framework of European projects such as ChEESE, eFlows4HPC and DT-GEO, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has developed key tools for seismic simulation, including the urgent computing workflow UCIS4EQ (Urgent Computing Integrated Services for Earthquakes), which produces rapid maps of shaking and impacts after an earthquake. UCIS4EQ uses the Salvus code, developed by Mondaic, which models the propagation of seismic waves in great detail using GPUs. These technologies, executed on supercomputers such as MareNostrum 5, are essential to improving the understanding of seismic phenomena and supporting emergency decision-making, enabling authorities and civil protection services to respond more quickly and effectively to seismic events.
More information:
- ChEESE-2P: https://cheese2.eu
- DT-GEO: https://dtgeo.eu
Published: 16 September 2025
By Aerton Guimarães and Varvara Vedia
Photos by Varvara Vedia
From the ChEESE-2P Dissemination Team
