CASMI - A visualization tool for the World Stress Map database

The World Stress Map (WSM) project has compiled a global database of quality-ranked data records on the contemporary tectonic stresses in the Earth’s crust. The WSM 2005 database release contains approximately 16 000 data records from different types of stress indicators such as earthquake focal mechanisms solutions, well bore breakouts, hydraulic fracturing and overcoring measurements, as well as quaternary fault-slip data and volcanic alignments. To provide a software tool for database visualization, analysis and interpretation of stress data as well its integration with other data records, we developed the program CASMI. This public domain software tool for Unix-like operating systems enables the selection of stress data records from the WSM database according to location, data quality, type of stress indicator, and depth. Each selected data record is visualized by a symbol that represents the type of stress indicator and the orientation of the maximum horizontal compressive stress. Symbol size is proportional to the quality of the data record, and the colour indicates different tectonic regimes. Stress maps can be produced in different geographical projections and high-quality output formats. CASMI also allows the integration of user-defined stress data sets and a wide range of other data such as topography, Harvard centroid moment tensors, polygons, text data, and plate motion trajectories. CASMI, including the WSM 2005 database release, can be requested free of charge from the project’s website at http://www.world-stress-map.org/casmi. We present two stress map examples generated with CASMI ranging from plate-wide to regional scale: (1) A stress map of central Europe, that reveals the correlation of stress field orientation and relative plate motion. (2) The fan-shape stress pattern in North Germany.