Listening to ambient seismic noise: what can it tell us about the Earth? - C. Hadziioannou (DGG2021)
Channel: Seismology Hamburg
Date: 19/10/2022

Plenary Lecture at the DGG2021 (German Geophysical Society 2021 meeting), by Celine Hadziioannou from the University of Hamburg. 


The ambient seismic wave field carries information about the sources that excited it, and about the material that it passed through. By recording and carefully analyzing the seismic 'noise', we can learn many things about the Earth. For example, the most prominent seismic noise comes from interactions between ocean waves and the solid earth. Therefore, it carries the imprint of storms, of weather over the oceans and seas, and even of the tides.
The seismic noise field also carries the imprint of earth structure, and changes therein. I show that useful signals can be extracted from ambient noise, which can then be used to monitor material changes with high temporal resolution.
Over the past decade, the use of seismic noise has found its way into applications across temporal and spatial scales. I give an overview of current applications as well as a quick peek into future developments.