Research

I am a seismologist by trade, with an emphasis on seismoacoustics and marine geophysics. In general, if it involves elastic waves I probably find it interesting. The word cloud at left was generated from the titles of my publications (at least those that are listed on Google Scholar). It should provide a sense of what I study.

To learn more about my research, please check out my publications here (Western CEDAR) or here (Google Scholar).

Volcano seismology

Much of what we know about volcanic systems comes from the earthquakes that they generate. These may be caused by magma or gases moving within the volcano, or by regional stresses. My students and I use a variety of seismic techniques to investigate volcanic structure and magmatic processes. At left is a tomographic profile of Kama`ehuakanaloa seamount (formerly called Lo`ihi), modified from Merz et al., 2019.

Volcano acoustics

Not only do volcanoes generate earthquakes, they can also generate sound. Using microphones, both in air and under the sea, we can record these sounds and use them to investigate eruption dynamics and other volcanic processes. Shown at left is hydroacoustic data recorded at West Mata volcano (Tonga). In this ~10 minute time spectrogram we see signals associated with earthquakes, magma bubble bursts, and a submarine landslide.

Unusual sources of seismic energy

Anything that shakes the ground can be detected by seismometers. This includes non-earthquake events such as landslides, lava-water explosions, and human activity such as cars, trains, and yes, concerts. Using seismic and acoustic techniques my research team has investigated the sounds generated by submarine landslides, and we have studied rock concert to show that amplified music and crowd activity generate distinct seismic signals. At left we see data from the Taylor Swift concert in Seattle, June 22, 2023.

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