EAS Fall 2017 Seminar Speaker Series: Dr. Guoqing Lin, University of Miami

The Island of Hawaii was formed by volcanic eruptions, consisting of several large volcanoes, including the world’s largest volcano, Mauna Loa, and the world’s largest active volcanic crater, Kilauea. 

Hawaii is also one of the most seismically active regions in the world and has been serving as a natural laboratory for studying the interactions between seismic and magmatic processes for the past few decades. 

The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory operates an extensive seismic network to measure and study the ongoing activity on the Island of Hawaii. The digital seismic data became available since 1986, including catalog data, phase picks and waveforms. 

In this presentation, I will show how seismologists take advantage of this invaluable data resource to study seismicity and Earth structure on an island with high rates of tectonic and volcanic activity. Our newly developed seismic velocity and attenuation models provide essential constraints on Earth properties because of their sensitivity to rock composition, fluid content, thermal effect, and other factors. 

The high-precision earthquake relocation and focal mechanism catalogs from more than 30 years of seismic monitoring offer enhanced opportunities for study and interpretation of seismic and volcanic processes spanning the entire 1986-2016 interval.