I am a volcano seismologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) in Anchorage. My work involves research on the seismicity and structure of Alaskan volcanoes, volcano monitoring, infrasound, and the acquisition and processing of data from the AVO seismic network.
At AVO, I focus on the interpretation of seismicity at volcanoes with the goal of providing improved forecasts and assessments of volcano hazards to the public. Different aspects of my position touch on research, operations, and monitoring. A major part of my research includes the interpretation of seismic waves in the Earth and sound waves in the atmosphere for detecting volcanic unrest, imaging volcanic structure, and elucidating the dynamics of volcanic sources.
Professional Experience
2011 – present Research Geophysicist, Alaska Volcano Observatory
2009 – 2011 Assistant Professor, Boise State University, Dept. of Geosciences
2007 – 2009 USGS Mendenhall Postdoc, Alaska Volcano Observatory
2005 – 2007 Postdoctoral Appointee, Sandia National Laboratories
Education and Certifications
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO Geophysical Engineering B.Sc. 1999
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO Geophysics Ph.D. 2005
Affiliations and Memberships*
Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG)
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Seismological Society of America (SSA)
Honors and Awards
J. Clarence Karcher Award (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) 2007
Science and Products
Volcanic earthquake catalog enhancement using integrated detection, matched-filtering, and relocation tools
The global seismographic network reveals atmospherically coupled normal modes excited by the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption
Atmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga
A Year-long Hydroacoustic Survey of the Mariana Islands Region
Rayleigh-wave ellipticity in weakly heterogeneous layered media
Reconstructing the dynamics of the highly similar May 2016 and June 2019 Iliamna Volcano, Alaska ice–rock avalanches from seismoacoustic data
Local explosion detection and infrasound localization by reverse time migration using 3-D finite-difference wave propagation
Very‐long‐period (VLP) seismic artifacts during the 2018 caldera collapse at Kīlauea, Hawaii
Seismic velocity variations associated with the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi
Seismic and geodetic progression of the 2018 summit caldera collapse of Kīlauea Volcano
Evolving infrasound detections from Bogoslof volcano, Alaska: Insights from atmospheric propagation modeling
Did ice-charging generate volcanic lightning during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska?
Science and Products
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 37
Volcanic earthquake catalog enhancement using integrated detection, matched-filtering, and relocation tools
Volcanic earthquake catalogs are an essential data product used to interpret subsurface volcanic activity and forecast eruptions. Advances in detection techniques (e.g., matched-filtering, machine learning) and relative relocation tools have improved catalog completeness and refined event locations. However, most volcano observatories have yet to incorporate these techniques into their catalog-buiAuthorsDarren Tan, David Fee, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, J. Pesicek, Matthew M. Haney, John A. Power, T. GironaThe global seismographic network reveals atmospherically coupled normal modes excited by the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption
The eruption of the submarine Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai (Hunga Tonga) volcano on 15 January 2022, was one of the largest volcanic explosions recorded by modern geophysical instrumentation. The eruption was notable for the broad range of atmospheric wave phenomena it generated and for their unusual coupling with the oceans and solid Earth. The event was recorded worldwide across the Global SeismogrAuthorsAdam T. Ringler, Robert E. Anthony, Rick Aster, T. Taira, Brian Shiro, David C. Wilson, S. H. De Angelis, C. Ebeling, Matthew M. Haney, R. Matoza, H. OrtizAtmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga
The 15 January 2022 climactic eruption of Hunga volcano, Tonga, produced an explosion in the atmosphere of a size that has not been documented in the modern geophysical record. The event generated a broad range of atmospheric waves observed globally by various ground-based and spaceborne instrumentation networks. Most prominent was the surface-guided Lamb wave (≲0.01 hertz), which we observed propAuthorsRobin S. Matoza, David Fee, Jelle D. Assink, Alexandra M. Iezzi, David N. Green, Keehoon Kim, Liam Toney, Thomas Lecocq, Siddharth Krishnamoorthy, Jean-Marie Lalande, Kiwamu Nishida, Kent L. Gee, Matthew M. Haney, Hugo D. Ortiz, Quentin Brissaud, Léo Martire, Lucie Rolland, Panagiotis Vergados, Alexandra Nippress, Junghyun Park, Shahar Shani-Kadmiel, Alex Witsil, Stephen Arrowsmith, Corentin Caudron, Shingo Watada, Anna Perttu, Benoit Taisne, Pierrick Mialle, Alexis Le Pichon, Julien Vergoz, Patrick Hupe, Philip S. Blom, Roger M. Waxler, Silvio De Angelis, Jonathan Snively, Adam T. Ringler, Robert E. Anthony, Arthur Din Jolly, Geoff Kilgour, Gil Averbuch, Maurizio Ripepe, Mie Ichihara, Alejandra Arciniega-Ceballos, Elvira Astafyeva, Lars Ceranna, Sandrine Cevuard, Il-Young Che, Rodrigo de Negri Leiva, Carl W. Ebeling, Läslo G. Evers, Luis E. Franco-Marin, Tom Gabrielson, Katrin Hafner, R. Giles Harrison, Attila Komjathy, Giorgio Lacanna, John J. Lyons, Kenneth A. Macpherson, Emanuele Marchetti, Kathleen McKee, Rob Mellors, Gerardo Mendo-Pérez, T. Dylan Mikesell, Edhah Munaibari, Mayra Oyola-Merced, Iseul Park, Christoph Pilger, Cristina Ramos, Mario Ruiz, Roberto Sabatini, Hans Schwaiger, Dorianne Tailpied, Carrick Talmadge, Jérôme Vidot, Jeremy Webster, David C. WilsonA Year-long Hydroacoustic Survey of the Mariana Islands Region
The Mariana Islands region hosts interesting geological features as well as abundant biodiversity. The subduction zone and back-arc spreading center have led to active volcanism that can have impacts on local islanders, aircraft flying in the region, and military activities. We deployed a small aperture hydrophone array from June 2017 to June 2018 in the Marianas back-arc to better characterize suAuthorsGabrielle Tepp, Robert P. Dziak, Matthew M. Haney, Lauren Roche, Haru MatsumotoRayleigh-wave ellipticity in weakly heterogeneous layered media
We derive approximate expressions for the ellipticity (i.e. horizontal-to-vertical or vertical-to-horizontal ratio) of Rayleigh waves propagating in a layered medium. The approximation is based on the generalized energy equation for Rayleigh waves, which has been used previously to obtain perturbational results for ellipticity. For a medium with weakly heterogeneous layers, we obtain an approximatAuthorsMatthew M. Haney, Victor C. TsaiReconstructing the dynamics of the highly similar May 2016 and June 2019 Iliamna Volcano, Alaska ice–rock avalanches from seismoacoustic data
Surficial mass wasting events are a hazard worldwide. Seismic and acoustic signals from these often remote processes, combined with other geophysical observations, can provide key information for monitoring and rapid response efforts and enhance our understanding of event dynamics. Here, we present seismoacoustic data and analyses for two very large ice–rock avalanches occurring on Iliamna VolcanoAuthorsLiam Toney, David Fee, Kate E. Allstadt, Matthew M. Haney, Robin S. MatozaLocal explosion detection and infrasound localization by reverse time migration using 3-D finite-difference wave propagation
Infrasound data are routinely used to detect and locate volcanic and other explosions, using both arrays and single sensor networks. However, at local distances (AuthorsDavid Fee, Liam Toney, Keehoon Kim, Richard Sanderson, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Robin S Matoza, Silvio DeAngelis, Art Jolly, John J. Lyons, Matthew M. HaneyVery‐long‐period (VLP) seismic artifacts during the 2018 caldera collapse at Kīlauea, Hawaii
Throughout the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano (Hawai‘i), episodic collapses of a portion of the volcano’s summit caldera produced repeated Mw 4.9–5.3 earthquakes. Each of these 62 events was characterized by a very‐long‐period (VLP) seismic signal (>40 s). Although collapses in the later stage of the eruption produced earthquakes with significant amplitude clipping on near‐summit broadband seAuthorsAshton F. Flinders, Ingrid Johanson, Phillip B. Dawson, Kyle R. Anderson, Matthew M. Haney, Brian ShiroSeismic velocity variations associated with the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi
The 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea (Hawai‘i) marked a dramatic change in the volcano’s 35-year-long rift zone eruption. The collapse of the middle East Rift Zone vent Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō was followed by one of the volcano’s most voluminous eruptions in 500 years. Over the course of this 3-month eruption, the draining of summit-stored magma led to near-daily collapses of a portion of the caldeAuthorsAshton F. Flinders, Corentin Caudron, Ingrid Johanson, Taka'aki Taira, Brian Shiro, Matthew M. HaneySeismic and geodetic progression of the 2018 summit caldera collapse of Kīlauea Volcano
The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano, Hawaiʻi, resulted in a major collapse of the summit caldera along with an effusive eruption in the lower East Rift Zone. The caldera collapse comprised 62 highly similar collapse cycles of strong ground deformation and earthquake swarms that ended with a magnitude 5 collapse event and one partial cycle that did not end with a collapse event. We analyzed geodetAuthorsGabrielle Tepp, Alicia J. Hotovec-Ellis, Brian Shiro, Ingrid Johanson, Weston Thelen, Matthew M. HaneyEvolving infrasound detections from Bogoslof volcano, Alaska: Insights from atmospheric propagation modeling
Bogoslof volcano, a back-arc volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian arc, began an eruptive sequence in mid-December 2016 that ended in late August 2017, with 70 individual eruptive episodes. Because there were no local seismic or infrasound stations on the island, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) relied on distant geophysical networks and remote sensing techniques to assess activity during the eruption.AuthorsHans Schwaiger, John J. Lyons, Alexandra M. Iezzi, David Fee, Matthew M. HaneyDid ice-charging generate volcanic lightning during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska?
The 2016–2017 shallow submarine eruption of Bogoslof volcano in Alaska injected plumes of ash and seawater to maximum heights of ~ 12 km. More than 4550 volcanic lightning strokes were detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and Vaisala’s Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360) over 9 months. Lightning assisted monitoring efforts by confirming ash-producing explosions in near-realAuthorsAlexa R. Van Eaton, David Schneider, Cassandra Marie Smith, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, Ryan Said, David Fee, Robert H. Holzworth, Larry G. Mastin
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government