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.

For reasons that are not yet well understood, some landslides give us seismic warning before failure. The earthquakes that they generate are tiny (usually smaller than M1), but they follow a characteristic pattern that identifies them as landslide precursors. Thus far we have not developed a means of using them in a warning capacity, but we hope this will be the outcome of our research. 

Landslides with precursors were originally identified on the flanks of volcanoes, which is likely because volcanoes are often densely instrumented. We now know that such signals can be detected in other environments. Notably, a spectacular precursory sequence was observed in August 2025 in association with the Tracy Arm landslide, which generated the second highest tsunami ever recorded. 

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.