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. 

Photos courtesy USGS and Christine Smith

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.  

Related work was led by WWU undergrad Carmen Atkins, with important contributions from WWU grad student Olana Costa! Carmen and Olana used hydroacoustic data to investigate how lava was emplaced offshore Kilauea volcano during its 2018 eruption. Critical data for this project came from WWU alumna Samantha Russell who provided us with photos taken when the tour boat she was on was hit by a lava explosion. Check out the paper here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL110885