Detection of Deep Low-Frequency Tremors from Continuous Paper Records at
a Station in Southwest Japan About 50 Years Ago Based on Convolutional
Neural Network for Seismogram Images
Abstract
The establishment of the High Sensitivity Seismograph Network (Hi-net)
in Japan has led to the discovery of deep low-frequency tremors. Since
such tremors are considered to be related to large earthquakes adjacent
to tremors on the same subducting plate interface, it is important in
seismology to investigate tremors before establishing modern seismograph
networks that record seismic data digitally. We propose a deep learning
method to detect evidence of tremors from seismogram images recorded on
paper more than 50 years ago. In our previous study, we constructed a
convolutional neural network (CNN) based on the Residual Network
(ResNet) structure and verified its performance through learning with
synthetic images generated based on past seismograms. In this study, we
trained the CNN with seismogram images converted from real seismic data
recorded by Hi-net. The CNN trained by fine-tuning achieved an accuracy
of 98.64% for determining whether an input image contains tremors. The
Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) heatmaps to
visualize model predictions indicate that the CNN successfully detects
tremors without affections of a variety of noises, such as teleseisms.
The trained CNN was applied to the past seismograms recorded at the
Kumano observatory, Japan, operated by Earthquake Research Institute,
The University of Tokyo. The CNN shows the potential to detect tremors
from past seismogram images for broader applications, such as publishing
a new tremor catalog.