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Distinguishing natural sources from anthropogenic events in seismic data

December 6, 2024

As seismic data are increasingly used to investigate a diverse range of subsurface phenomena beyond regular fast-rupturing earthquakes (Peng and Gomberg, 2010; Beroza and Ide, 2011), it is important to acknowledge that human-generated ground vibrations may be mistaken for naturally generated subsurface processes (Larose et al., 2015; Li et al., 2018). Correct discrimination of natural processes from anthropogenic noise is especially pressing given the trend in seismic detection research toward automated algorithms and machine learning methods (Yoon et al., 2015; Kong et al., 2019;Mousavi and Beroza, 2022) and the growth in seismic data collection in new environments such as urban and industry settings (e.g., Díaz et al.,2017).

Publication Year 2025
Title Distinguishing natural sources from anthropogenic events in seismic data
DOI 10.1785/0220240330
Authors Sean Maher, Margaret Elizabeth Glasgow, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Zhigang Peng
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Seismological Research Letters
Index ID 70261631
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earthquake Science Center
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