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Unsupervised learning of seismic wavefield features: clustering continuous array seismic data during the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake
  • Peidong Shi,
  • Léonard Seydoux,
  • Piero Poli
Peidong Shi
Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Université Grenoble Alpes

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Léonard Seydoux
Institut des Sciences de la Terre
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Piero Poli
Université Grenoble-Alpes, Isterre Laboratory
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Abstract

We apply unsupervised machine learning to three years of continuous seismic data to unravel the evolution of seismic wavefield properties in the period of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. To obtain sensible representations of wavefield properties variations, wavefield features, i.e. entropy, coherency, eigenvalue variance, and first eigenvalue, are extracted from the covariance matrix analysis of continuous array seismic data. The defined wavefield features are insensitive to site-dependent local noise, and can inform the spatiotemporal properties of seismic waves generated by sources inside the array. We perform a sensitivity analysis of these wavefield features and build unsupervised learning based on the uncorrelated features to track the evolution of source properties. By clustering the wavefield features, our unsupervised analysis avoids explicit physical modeling (e.g. location of events, magnitude estimation) and can naturally separate peculiar patterns solely from continuous seismic data. The unsupervised learning of wavefield features reveals distinct clusters well correlated with different periods of the seismic cycle.
Jan 2021Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth volume 126 issue 1. 10.1029/2020JB020506