Leveraging deep learning in global 24/7 real-time earthquake monitoring at the National Earthquake Information Center

Seismological Research Letters
By: , and 

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Abstract

Machine‐learning algorithms continue to show promise in their application to seismic processing. The U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is exploring the adoption of these tools to aid in simultaneous local, regional, and global real‐time earthquake monitoring. As a first step, we describe a simple framework to incorporate deep‐learning tools into NEIC operations. Automatic seismic arrival detections made from standard picking methods (e.g., short‐term average/long‐term average [STA/LTA]) are fed to trained neural network models to improve automatic seismic‐arrival (pick) timing and estimate seismic‐arrival phase type and source‐station distances. These additional data are used to improve the capabilities of the NEIC associator. We compile a dataset of 1.3 million seismic‐phase arrivals that represent a globally distributed set of source‐station paths covering a range of phase types, magnitudes, and source distances. We train three separate convolutional neural network models to predict arrival time onset, phase type, and distance. We validate the performance of the trained networks on a subset of our existing dataset and further extend validation by exploring the model performance when applied to NEIC automatic pick data feeds. We show that the information provided by these models can be useful in downstream event processing, specifically in seismic‐phase association, resulting in reduced false associations and improved location estimates.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Leveraging deep learning in global 24/7 real-time earthquake monitoring at the National Earthquake Information Center
Series title Seismological Research Letters
DOI 10.1785/0220200178
Volume 92
Issue 1
Year Published 2021
Language English
Publisher Seismological Society of America
Contributing office(s) Geologic Hazards Science Center
Description 12 p.
First page 4469
Last page 480
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