Correlation of Environmental Factors With Seismic Records on the Alaska Geophysical Network
Description:
The Alaska Geophysical Network (AGN), maintained by the Alaska Earthquake Center (AEC), consists of over 250 remote monitoring stations located across the state of Alaska. Each station records real-time, or near real-time, seismic data. Roughly half the stations include weather and infrasound sensors collecting real-time data in parallel with the seismic sensors. Many of the stations also include continuous near-surface soil temperature sensors. This combination of co-located sensors combined with the broad geographic coverage of the network provides a robust and unique dataset for investigating and modeling a range of environmental and geophysical conditions, and their interplay, in arctic and subarctic regions.
Seismic data are influenced by a variety of environmental factors, including weather and ground conditions. Hence, seismic and network diagnostic records can be used to model environmental conditions in regions with sparse observations, and seismic network performance can be forecast based on environmental conditions. Some applications of this co-located, cross-disciplinary data we and collaborating organizations have been exploring are: associating seismic data with wind and sea ice conditions; utilizing weather data collected on our network to generate fire weather forecasts; and using infrasound data to estimate seismic velocity and earthquake magnitudes. At multiple stations, we have observed higher wind speeds correlate to increased seismic noise. Environmental factors such as increased vegetation height, lack of snow cover, and thawing permafrost ground led to increased noise in the seismic records. In the Arctic, climate change is projected to increase vegetation heights via shrub expansion, decrease sea ice cover, cause less stable ground due to warming and thawing permafrost, and have higher wind speeds. Combining these findings, we anticipate increasing seismic noise in the Arctic over the coming decades.
Session: ESC-SSA Joint Session: Climate Change and Environmental Seismology - II
Type: Oral
Date: 5/3/2024
Presentation Time: 05:00 PM (local time)
Presenting Author: Nathaniel
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Authors
Joanne Heslop Corresponding Author jheslop@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Nathaniel Murphy Presenting Author nwmurphy@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Michael West mewest@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Carolyn Parcheta ceparcheta@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Natalia Ruppert naruppert@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Heather McFarlin hlmcfarlin@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Stephen Holtkamp sgholtkamp@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Alex Farrell akfarrell@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Martin Stuefer mstuefer@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks |
Dmitry Nickolsky djnicolsky@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States |
Kenneth A Macpherson kamacpherson@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States |
David Fee dfee1@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States |
Sebin John sjohn19@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States |
Cade Quigley caquigley@alaska.edu University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States |
Correlation of Environmental Factors With Seismic Records on the Alaska Geophysical Network
Category
ESC-SSA Joint Session: Climate Change and Environmental Seismology