Welcome to the Coupling Cloud!

Kinematic coupling models use geodetic observations to identify regions of subduction interfaces that are not slipping and accumulating strain, in contrast to areas that creep. This makes them critical for highlighting where future megathrust earthquakes are more likely to occur. However, these models vary widely in methods, assumptions, and parameterizations, and have historically been scattered across publications and repositories.

The Coupling Cloud is an open, community-driven platform that brings together published kinematic megathrust coupling models from subduction zones worldwide into a single standardized, downloadable, and fully interactive ecosystem. It makes it easy to compare models created with different approaches and to explore how modeling choices shape inferred coupling patterns.

How to Use the Viewer

To explore the coupling models in the 2D map view, open the Coupling Datasets panel and select a data variable from a publication. Double-clicking a variable will automatically zoom to that dataset. To adjust the color scale or colormap, use the Brush panel.

To view metadata or download a specific model, open the Metadata & Download panel and click the Download button. This panel provides the model’s DOI, and the complete reference can be found in the References panel.

For models where the depth of the interface used in the inversion is available, you can visualize coupling in 3D. Click the 3D Viewer button to enter an interactive scene for each subduction zone with compatible data.

If you use any dataset from the Coupling Cloud, please make sure to cite the original publication(s) associated with that model. The Coupling Cloud is a community-driven database built entirely from the generous contributions of researchers who developed and published these coupling models. Their work forms the foundation of this platform, and proper attribution is essential.

The DOI for each publication can be found in the Metadata & Download panel. From there, you can open the original publication directly, or you can view the complete citation in the References tab.

If you find the Coupling Cloud useful for your research, teaching, or synthesis efforts, we also encourage you to cite our paper:

Oryan et al., (2026) The Coupling Cloud: A community database of megathrust kinematic coupling models. Seismica, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.2314

References will be listed here.

We welcome new models from all subduction zones worldwide!

If you would like to add your model to the Coupling Cloud, please use the submission link below. If you do not yet have access, please email boryan@ucsd.edu.

Please review our submission guidelines before uploading your files:
📄 Coupling Cloud Data Submission Guidelines (PDF)

When you are ready to contribute, please fill out the submission form:
➤ Coupling Cloud Model Submission Form
(Requires Google login)

Contributors are fully acknowledged and may be included as co-authors in future Coupling Cloud publications.

Each model includes a NetCDF file where coupling and other data variables are provided as functions of longitude and latitude. We recommend loading these files with Python’s xarray package, which offers convenient tools for working with multi-variable, labelled datasets.

Every model has an associated metadata.yaml file containing important information such as the region, DOI, model type, inversion details, degrees of freedom, observation types, and other recommended metadata fields. This YAML file can be viewed as plain text, and it is fully machine-readable for automated processing.

For models where the original dislocation solution is available, we provide two corresponding VTU files representing the megathrust interface mesh:

• One in native geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude, depth).
• One in Earth-Centered cartesian coordinates using theEPSG:4978 reference frame (meters: X, Y, Z). This allows direct 3D plotting and geocentric analysis.

We recommend using PyVista and Meshio to load, visualize, and manipulate these VTU files.

All models can be downloaded at the link below:
➤ Download all Coupling Cloud datasets

Example Jupyter notebooks demonstrating how to open and interact with these files can be found here:
➤ Coupling Cloud Example Notebooks

You can also download all 3D scenes at the link below (recommended to load in ParaView):
➤ Download all Coupling Cloud 3D scenes