I am a seismologist at the USGS Geologic Hazards Science Center, in Golden, Colorado. Much of my research is focused on operational tools that allow the National Earthquake Information Center to rapidly and accurately detect and model the source characteristics of earthquakes. I use these tools to better understand the seismotectonics of significant events.
Education:
2015 - Ph.D. in Geophysics, University of Colorado at Boulder
2008 - B.S. in Physics, Astronomy-Physics, (Minor in Archeology), University of Wisconsin - Madison
Publications:
Please visit my google scholar page for the most up-to-date list of my publications: Click Here
Science and Products
Improving Earthquake Monitoring with Deep Learning
Release Date: MARCH 12, 2021On January 20, 2021 at 8:32am light shaking interrupted breakfast customers at a local coffee shop south of downtown Los Angeles, California. Everyone paused briefly while they waited to see if it was going to stop… or start shaking harder.
Waveform Data and Metadata used to National Earthquake Information Center Deep-Learning Models
These data were used to train the Machine Learning models supporting the USGS software release "NEIC Machine Learning Applications Software" (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ICQPUR), and its companion publication in Seismological Research Letters "Leveraging Deep Learning in Global 24/7 Real-Time Earthquake Monitoring at the National Earthquake Information Center" (ht
Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Foreshock-Mainshock-Aftershock Sequence of the 6 July 2017 M5.8 Lincoln, Montana, Earthquake - Data Release
We used matched filter detection and multiple-event relocation techniques to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of the sequence. Our analysis is from the 14 closest seismic stations to the earthquake sequence, which included seven permanent stations from the Montana Regional Seismic Network, one permanent station from the ANSS backbone network and three temporary seismic stations deployed b
Earthquake Catalogs supporting manuscript "Afterslip Enhanced Aftershock Activity During the 2017 Earthquake Sequence Near Sulphur Peak, Idaho"
This ScienceBase entry contains three seismic catalogs supporting and described by the manuscript - Koper, K. D., Pankow, K. L., Pechmann, J. C., Hale, J. M., Burlacu, R., Yeck, W. L., et al (2018). Afterslip Enhanced Aftershock Activity During the 2017 Earthquake Sequence Near Sulphur Peak, Idaho. Geophysical Research Letters, 45. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078196. These are included in three
Aftershock Catalog for the November 2011 Prague, Oklahoma Earthquake Sequence
The dataset contains the catalog of 5446 events and arrival times resulting from subspace detection processing and relocation in the for the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma, aftershock sequence. Lines beginning with "E" contain event information in the following order: event ID, origin year, origin month, origin day, origin hour, origin minute, origin second, latitude, longitude, depth, and magnitude. Lines
Filter Total Items: 19
Integrated geophysical characteristics of the 2015 Illapel, Chile, earthquake
On 16 September 2015, a Mw 8.3 earthquake ruptured the subduction zone offshore of Illapel, Chile, generating an aftershock sequence with 14 Mw 6.0–7.0 events. A double source W phase moment tensor inversion consists of a Mw 7.2 subevent and the main Mw 8.2 phase. We determine two slip models for the mainshock, one using teleseismic broadband waveforms and the other using static GPS and InSAR surf
Spatio-temporal evolution of the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma aftershock sequence revealed using subspace detection and relocation
The 6 November 2011 Mw 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma is the second largest earthquake ever recorded in the state. A Mw 4.8 foreshock and the Mw 5.7 mainshock triggered a prolific aftershock sequence. Utilizing a subspace detection method, we increase by fivefold the number of precisely located events between 4 November and 5 December 2011. We find that while most aftershock energy is releas
Source modeling of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal (Gorkha) earthquake sequence: Implications for geodynamics and earthquake hazards
The Gorkha earthquake on April 25th, 2015 was a long anticipated, low-angle thrust-faulting event on the shallow décollement between the India and Eurasia plates. We present a detailed multiple-event hypocenter relocation analysis of the Mw 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake sequence, constrained by local seismic stations, and a geodetic rupture model based on InSAR and GPS data. We integrate these obser
Oklahoma experiences largest earthquake during ongoing regional wastewater injection hazard mitigation efforts
The 3 September 2016, Mw 5.8 Pawnee earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in the state of Oklahoma. Seismic and geodetic observations of the Pawnee sequence, including precise hypocenter locations and moment tensor modeling, shows that the Pawnee earthquake occurred on a previously unknown left-lateral strike-slip basement fault that intersects the mapped right-lateral Labette fault zone.
A rare moderate‐sized (Mw 4.9) earthquake in Kansas: Rupture process of the Milan, Kansas, earthquake of 12 November 2014 and its relationship to fluid injection
The largest recorded earthquake in Kansas occurred northeast of Milan on 12 November 2014 (Mw 4.9) in a region previously devoid of significant seismic activity. Applying multistation processing to data from local stations, we are able to detail the rupture process and rupture geometry of the mainshock, identify the causative fault plane, and delineate the expansion and extent of the subsequent se
Far-field pressurization likely caused one of the largest injection induced earthquakes by reactivating a large pre-existing basement fault structure
The Mw 5.1 Fairview, Oklahoma, earthquake on 13 February 2016 and its associated seismicity produced the largest moment release in the central and eastern United States since the 2011 Mw 5.7 Prague, Oklahoma, earthquake sequence and is one of the largest earthquakes potentially linked to wastewater injection. This energetic sequence has produced five earthquakes with Mw 4.4 or larger. Almost all o
Rapid response, monitoring, and mitigation of induced seismicity near Greeley, Colorado
On 1 June 2014 (03:35 UTC), an Mw 3.2 earthquake occurred in Weld County, Colorado, a historically aseismic area of the Denver–Julesburg basin. Weld County is a prominent area of oil and gas development, including many high‐rate class II wastewater injection wells. In the days following the earthquake, the University of Colorado, with support from the U.S. Geological Survey and Incorporated Resear
Rapid characterization of the 2015 <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence and its seismotectonic context
Earthquake response and related information products are important for placing recent seismic events into context and particularly for understanding the impact earthquakes can have on the regional community and its infrastructure. These tools are even more useful if they are available quickly, ahead of detailed information from the areas affected by such earthquakes. Here we provide an overview of
A flatfile of ground motion intensity measurements from induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas
We have produced a uniformly processed database of orientation-independent (RotD50, RotD100) ground motion intensity measurements containing peak horizontal ground motions (accelerations and velocities) and 5-percent-damped pseudospectral accelerations (0.1–10 s) from more than 3,800 M ≥ 3 earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas that occurred between January 2009 and December 2016. Ground motion time s
Induced earthquake and liquefaction hazards in Oklahoma, USA: Constraints from InSAR
Oklahoma experienced three earthquakes of Mw5.0 or greater in 2016: the 13-Feb. Fairview earthquake (Mw5.1), the 03-Sep. Pawnee earthquake (Mw5.8), and the 07-Nov. Cushing earthquake (Mw5.0). These events are the first earthquakes in the state exceeding Mw5.0 since the 2011 Mw5.7 Prague earthquake and likely result from wide-scale deep fluid-injection. We use interferometric synthetic aperture rad
Spatiotemporal analysis of the Foreshock-Mainshock-Aftershock sequence of the 6 July 2017 M5.8 Lincoln, Montana, earthquake
A MW 5.8 earthquake occurred on 6 July 2017 at 12.2 km depth, 11 km southeast of Lincoln in west central Montana. No major damage or injuries were reported; however, the widely felt mainshock generated a prolific aftershock sequence with more than 1200 located events through the end of 2017. The Lincoln event is the latest in a series of moderate-to-large earthquakes that have affected western Mon
GLASS3: A standalone multi-scale seismic detection associator
The automated global real-time association of phase picks into seismic sources comes with unique challenges when simultaneously monitoring at local, regional and global scales. High spatial variability in seismic station density, transitory seismic data availability, and time-varying noise characteristics of individual stations must be considered in the design of an associator that is fast and ac
neic-glass3
neic-glass3 is an open source and platform independent seismic event detection and association algorithm developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) and Caryl Erin Johnson, PhD, Introspective Systems LLC.
This algorithm converts a time series of seismic phase arrival times, back azimuth estimates from array beams, and cross-correlated de
Science and Products
- Science
Improving Earthquake Monitoring with Deep Learning
Release Date: MARCH 12, 2021On January 20, 2021 at 8:32am light shaking interrupted breakfast customers at a local coffee shop south of downtown Los Angeles, California. Everyone paused briefly while they waited to see if it was going to stop… or start shaking harder. - Data
Waveform Data and Metadata used to National Earthquake Information Center Deep-Learning Models
These data were used to train the Machine Learning models supporting the USGS software release &quot;NEIC Machine Learning Applications Software&quot; (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ICQPUR), and its companion publication in Seismological Research Letters &quot;Leveraging Deep Learning in Global 24/7 Real-Time Earthquake Monitoring at the National Earthquake Information Center&quot; (htSpatiotemporal Analysis of the Foreshock-Mainshock-Aftershock Sequence of the 6 July 2017 M5.8 Lincoln, Montana, Earthquake - Data Release
We used matched filter detection and multiple-event relocation techniques to characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of the sequence. Our analysis is from the 14 closest seismic stations to the earthquake sequence, which included seven permanent stations from the Montana Regional Seismic Network, one permanent station from the ANSS backbone network and three temporary seismic stations deployed bEarthquake Catalogs supporting manuscript &quot;Afterslip Enhanced Aftershock Activity During the 2017 Earthquake Sequence Near Sulphur Peak, Idaho&quot;
This ScienceBase entry contains three seismic catalogs supporting and described by the manuscript - Koper, K. D., Pankow, K. L., Pechmann, J. C., Hale, J. M., Burlacu, R., Yeck, W. L., et al (2018). Afterslip Enhanced Aftershock Activity During the 2017 Earthquake Sequence Near Sulphur Peak, Idaho. Geophysical Research Letters, 45. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078196. These are included in threeAftershock Catalog for the November 2011 Prague, Oklahoma Earthquake Sequence
The dataset contains the catalog of 5446 events and arrival times resulting from subspace detection processing and relocation in the for the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma, aftershock sequence. Lines beginning with "E" contain event information in the following order: event ID, origin year, origin month, origin day, origin hour, origin minute, origin second, latitude, longitude, depth, and magnitude. Lines - Publications
Filter Total Items: 19
Integrated geophysical characteristics of the 2015 Illapel, Chile, earthquake
On 16 September 2015, a Mw 8.3 earthquake ruptured the subduction zone offshore of Illapel, Chile, generating an aftershock sequence with 14 Mw 6.0–7.0 events. A double source W phase moment tensor inversion consists of a Mw 7.2 subevent and the main Mw 8.2 phase. We determine two slip models for the mainshock, one using teleseismic broadband waveforms and the other using static GPS and InSAR surfSpatio-temporal evolution of the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma aftershock sequence revealed using subspace detection and relocation
The 6 November 2011 Mw 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma is the second largest earthquake ever recorded in the state. A Mw 4.8 foreshock and the Mw 5.7 mainshock triggered a prolific aftershock sequence. Utilizing a subspace detection method, we increase by fivefold the number of precisely located events between 4 November and 5 December 2011. We find that while most aftershock energy is releasSource modeling of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Nepal (Gorkha) earthquake sequence: Implications for geodynamics and earthquake hazards
The Gorkha earthquake on April 25th, 2015 was a long anticipated, low-angle thrust-faulting event on the shallow décollement between the India and Eurasia plates. We present a detailed multiple-event hypocenter relocation analysis of the Mw 7.8 Gorkha Nepal earthquake sequence, constrained by local seismic stations, and a geodetic rupture model based on InSAR and GPS data. We integrate these obserOklahoma experiences largest earthquake during ongoing regional wastewater injection hazard mitigation efforts
The 3 September 2016, Mw 5.8 Pawnee earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in the state of Oklahoma. Seismic and geodetic observations of the Pawnee sequence, including precise hypocenter locations and moment tensor modeling, shows that the Pawnee earthquake occurred on a previously unknown left-lateral strike-slip basement fault that intersects the mapped right-lateral Labette fault zone.A rare moderate‐sized (Mw 4.9) earthquake in Kansas: Rupture process of the Milan, Kansas, earthquake of 12 November 2014 and its relationship to fluid injection
The largest recorded earthquake in Kansas occurred northeast of Milan on 12 November 2014 (Mw 4.9) in a region previously devoid of significant seismic activity. Applying multistation processing to data from local stations, we are able to detail the rupture process and rupture geometry of the mainshock, identify the causative fault plane, and delineate the expansion and extent of the subsequent seFar-field pressurization likely caused one of the largest injection induced earthquakes by reactivating a large pre-existing basement fault structure
The Mw 5.1 Fairview, Oklahoma, earthquake on 13 February 2016 and its associated seismicity produced the largest moment release in the central and eastern United States since the 2011 Mw 5.7 Prague, Oklahoma, earthquake sequence and is one of the largest earthquakes potentially linked to wastewater injection. This energetic sequence has produced five earthquakes with Mw 4.4 or larger. Almost all oRapid response, monitoring, and mitigation of induced seismicity near Greeley, Colorado
On 1 June 2014 (03:35 UTC), an Mw 3.2 earthquake occurred in Weld County, Colorado, a historically aseismic area of the Denver–Julesburg basin. Weld County is a prominent area of oil and gas development, including many high‐rate class II wastewater injection wells. In the days following the earthquake, the University of Colorado, with support from the U.S. Geological Survey and Incorporated ResearRapid characterization of the 2015 <i>M</i><sub>w</sub> 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake sequence and its seismotectonic context
Earthquake response and related information products are important for placing recent seismic events into context and particularly for understanding the impact earthquakes can have on the regional community and its infrastructure. These tools are even more useful if they are available quickly, ahead of detailed information from the areas affected by such earthquakes. Here we provide an overview ofA flatfile of ground motion intensity measurements from induced earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas
We have produced a uniformly processed database of orientation-independent (RotD50, RotD100) ground motion intensity measurements containing peak horizontal ground motions (accelerations and velocities) and 5-percent-damped pseudospectral accelerations (0.1–10 s) from more than 3,800 M ≥ 3 earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas that occurred between January 2009 and December 2016. Ground motion time sInduced earthquake and liquefaction hazards in Oklahoma, USA: Constraints from InSAR
Oklahoma experienced three earthquakes of Mw5.0 or greater in 2016: the 13-Feb. Fairview earthquake (Mw5.1), the 03-Sep. Pawnee earthquake (Mw5.8), and the 07-Nov. Cushing earthquake (Mw5.0). These events are the first earthquakes in the state exceeding Mw5.0 since the 2011 Mw5.7 Prague earthquake and likely result from wide-scale deep fluid-injection. We use interferometric synthetic aperture radSpatiotemporal analysis of the Foreshock-Mainshock-Aftershock sequence of the 6 July 2017 M5.8 Lincoln, Montana, earthquake
A MW 5.8 earthquake occurred on 6 July 2017 at 12.2 km depth, 11 km southeast of Lincoln in west central Montana. No major damage or injuries were reported; however, the widely felt mainshock generated a prolific aftershock sequence with more than 1200 located events through the end of 2017. The Lincoln event is the latest in a series of moderate-to-large earthquakes that have affected western MonGLASS3: A standalone multi-scale seismic detection associator
The automated global real-time association of phase picks into seismic sources comes with unique challenges when simultaneously monitoring at local, regional and global scales. High spatial variability in seismic station density, transitory seismic data availability, and time-varying noise characteristics of individual stations must be considered in the design of an associator that is fast and ac - Software
neic-glass3
neic-glass3 is an open source and platform independent seismic event detection and association algorithm developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) and Caryl Erin Johnson, PhD, Introspective Systems LLC. This algorithm converts a time series of seismic phase arrival times, back azimuth estimates from array beams, and cross-correlated de