GreenPhase: A Green Learning Approach for Earthquake Phase Picking
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California（美国南加州大学明希斯电气与计算机工程系）；Center for Earth and Environmental Studies, National Central University（中华大学地球与环境研究所）；Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering, National Central University（中华大学计算机科学与信息工程系）
Yixing Wu, Shiou-Ya Wang, Dingyi Nie, Sanket Kumbhar, Yun-Tung Hsieh, Yun-Cheng Wang, Po-Chyi Su, C. -C. Jay Kuo
Earthquake detection and seismic phase picking are fundamental yet challenging tasks in seismology due to low signal-to-noise ratios, waveform variability, and overlapping events. Recent deep-learning models achieve strong results but rely on large datasets and heavy backpropagation training, raising concerns over efficiency, interpretability, and sustainability.
We propose GreenPhase, a multi-resolution, feed-forward, and mathematically interpretable model based on the Green Learning framework. GreenPhase comprises three resolution levels, each integrating unsupervised representation learning, supervised feature learning, and decision learning. Its feed-forward design eliminates backpropagation, enabling independent module optimization with stable training and clear interpretability. Predictions are refined from coarse to fine resolutions while computation is restricted to candidate regions.
On the Stanford Earthquake Dataset (STEAD), GreenPhase achieves excellent performance with F1 scores of 1.0 for detection, 0.98 for P-wave picking, and 0.96 for S-wave picking. This is accomplished while reducing the computational cost (FLOPs) for inference by approximately 83% compared to state-of-the-art models. These results demonstrate that the proposed model provides an efficient, interpretable, and sustainable alternative for large-scale seismic monitoring.
Earthquake monitoring by seismic networks typically involves a workflow consisting of phase detection/picking, association, and location tasks. In recent years, the accuracy of these individual stages has been improved through the use of machine learning techniques. In this study, we introduce a new, end-to-end approach that improves overall earthquake detection accuracy by jointly optimizing each stage of the detection pipeline. We propose a neural network architecture for the task of multi-station processing of seismic waveforms recorded over a seismic network. This end-to-end architecture c…
Earthquake detection and seismic phase picking not only play a crucial role in travel time estimation of body waves(P and S waves) but also in the localisation of the epicenter of the corresponding event. Generally, manual phase picking is a trustworthy and the optimum method to determine the phase arrival time, however, its capacity is restricted by available resources and time. Moreover, noisy seismic data renders an additional critical challenge for fast and accurate phase picking. In this study, a deep learning based model, EPick, is proposed which benefits both from U shaped neural networ…
Learning Earthquake Wave Arrival Time Picking from Labels with Inaccuracies
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University（哈佛大学地球与行星科学系）；School of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学（北京）计算机科学与技术学院）；School of Mines, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学（北京）矿院）；State Key Laboratory of Coal Exploration and Intelligent Mining, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学（北京）煤炭勘探与智能开采国家重点实验室）
SeisT: A foundational deep learning model for earthquake monitoring tasks
School of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学计算机科学与技术学院）；School of Mines, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学矿业工程学院）；State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology（中国矿业大学煤炭资源与安全开采国家重点实验室）
Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）
The increasing volume of seismic data from long-term continuous monitoring motivates the development of algorithms based on convolutional neural network (CNN) for faster and more reliable phase detection and picking. However, many less studied regions lack a significant amount of labeled events needed for traditional CNN approaches. In this paper, we present a CNN-based Phase- Identification Classifier (CPIC) designed for phase detection and picking on small to medium sized training datasets. When trained on 30,146 labeled phases and applied to one-month of continuous recordings during the aft…
As the number of seismic sensors grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult for analysts to pick seismic phases manually and comprehensively, yet such efforts are fundamental to earthquake monitoring. Despite years of improvements in automatic phase picking, it is difficult to match the performance of experienced analysts. A more subtle issue is that different seismic analysts may pick phases differently, which can introduce bias into earthquake locations. We present a deep-neural-network-based arrival-time picking method called "PhaseNet" that picks the arrival times of both P and S waves. …
Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) is an emerging technology for earthquake monitoring and subsurface imaging. The recorded seismic signals by DAS have several distinct characteristics, such as unknown coupling effects, strong anthropogenic noise, and ultra-dense spatial sampling. These aspects differ from conventional seismic data recorded by seismic networks, making it challenging to utilize DAS at present for seismic monitoring. New data analysis algorithms are needed to extract useful information from DAS data. Previous studies on conventional seismic data demonstrated that deep learning m…
Earthquake phase association algorithms aggregate picked seismic phases from a network of seismometers into individual earthquakes and play an important role in earthquake monitoring. Dense seismic networks and improved phase picking methods produce massive earthquake phase data sets, particularly for earthquake swarms and aftershocks occurring closely in time and space, making phase association a challenging problem. We present a new association method, the Gaussian Mixture Model Association (GaMMA), that combines the Gaussian mixture model for phase measurements (both time and amplitude), wi…
Seismic phase association is the task of grouping phase arrival picks across a seismic network into subsets with common origins. Building on recent successes in this area with machine learning tools, we introduce a neural mixture model association algorithm (Neuma), which incorporates physics-informed neural networks and mixture models to address this challenging problem. Our formulation assumes explicitly that a dataset contains real phase picks from earthquakes and noise picks resulting from phase picking mistakes and fake picks. The problem statement is then to assign each observation to ei…
In this paper we present two new procedures for automatic detection and picking of P-wave arrivals. The first involves the application of kurtosis and skewness on the vector magnitude of three component seismograms. Customarily, P-wave arrival detection techniques use vertical component seismogram which is appropriate only for teleseismic events. The inherent weakness of those methods stems from the fact that the energy from P-wave is distributed among horizontal and vertical recording channels. Our procedure, however, uses the vector magnitude which accommodates all components. The results sh…
Many active volcanoes in the world exhibit Strombolian activity, which is typically characterized by relatively frequent mild events and also by rare and much more destructive major explosions and paroxysms. Detailed analyses of past major and minor events can help to understand the eruptive behavior of the volcano and the underlying physical and chemical processes. Catalogs of volcanic eruptions may be established using continuous seismic recordings at stations in the proximity of volcanoes. However, in many cases, the analysis of the recordings relies heavily on the manual picking of events …
