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Unsupervised Deep Clustering of Seismic Data: Monitoring the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
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  • William Frost Jenkins,
  • Peter Gerstoft,
  • Michael Bianco,
  • Peter D Bromirski
William Frost Jenkins
University of California San Diego, University of California San Diego, University of California San Diego

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Peter Gerstoft
UC San Diego, UC San Diego, UC San Diego
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Michael Bianco
UC San Diego, UC San Diego, UC San Diego
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Peter D Bromirski
SIO/UCSD, SIO/UCSD, SIO/UCSD
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Abstract

Advances in machine learning (ML) techniques and computational capacity have yielded state-of-the-art methodologies for processing, sorting, and analyzing large seismic data sets. In this work, we consider an application of ML for automatically identifying dominant types of impulsive seismicity contained in observations from a 34-station broadband seismic array deployed on the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), Antarctica from 2014 to 2017. The RIS seismic data contain signals and noise generated by many glaciological processes that are useful for monitoring the integrity and dynamics of ice shelves. Deep clustering was employed to efficiently investigate these signals. Deep clustering automatically groups signals into hypothetical classes without the need for manual labeling, allowing for comparison of their signal characteristics and spatial and temporal distribution with potential source mechanisms. The method uses spectrograms as input and encodes their salient features into a lower-dimensional latent representation using an autoencoder, a type of deep neural network. For comparison, two clustering methods are applied to the latent data: a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and deep embedded clustering (DEC). Eight classes of dominant seismic signals were identified and compared with environmental data such as temperature, wind speed, tides, and sea ice concentration. The greatest seismicity levels occurred at the RIS front during the 2016 El Niño summer, and near grounding zones near the front throughout the deployment. We demonstrate the spatial and temporal association of certain classes of seismicity with seasonal changes at the RIS front, and with tidally driven seismicity at Roosevelt Island.
Sep 2021Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth volume 126 issue 9. 10.1029/2021JB021716