Exploration Technology: Public Release of Scoops3D Version 1.3 - Software to Analyze Three-Dimensional Slope Stability Throughout a Digital Landscape

September 19, 2022

September 19th, 2022, Version 1.3 of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Scoops3D slope stability model was made available for public download on the USGS software release site. The Scoops3D Fortran code was developed by Sarah Christian, Associate Scientist (USRA), working under cooperative agreement with Mark Reid (USGS).

Scoops3D is a regional slope stability model that incorporates 3-D subsurface strengths and pore pressures and produces a map of relative slope stability (factor of safety) throughout a digital terrain. The model, originally published in 2015, has been downloaded thousands of times and applied in numerous national and international research studies, including analyses of slope stability on Mars. Version 1.3 contains several major updates that improve accuracy and efficiency of the model, with test run computation times running 2.5 to 4 times faster than the prior version. This is an interim release to immediately make available significant upgrades to the existing published model options. A major new release (Version 2.0) with many added features is planned for publication in 2023 or 2024. Some of the planned upgrades include computation of surface water loading, spatially variable earthquake shaking, inclusion of depth range constraints, computation of spheroidal and composite slip surface shapes, and a new ground-based search and optimization method.

Contributors include: Mark Reid (USGS), Sarah Christian (USRA), Dianne Brien (USGS), and Scott Henderson (past USGS intern). This work is funded through a separate award with USGS, and is include in this newsletter for awareness by the NAMS team.

For more information: https://www.usgs.gov/software/scoops3d