Ocean-bottom seismology

The ocean floor represents the next frontier for seismic studies of Earth structures using broadband ocean-bottom seismograph (OBS) stations. These stations have the advantage of being able to passively record full wave fields from distant earthquakes at a large bandwidth (~100 sec to ~100 Hz) and thus image deep crust and mantle structures, complementing acoustic hydrophone lines used in active source studies of shallow structure. Recording ground motion on the seafloor is particularly important to provide adequate coverage for global and regional studies of Earth structure, given that oceans cover 70% of the Earth surface. In anticipation of an increase in OBS station deployment and data sets, our group is: 1) implementing open-source software programs (see OrientPy and OBStools) to facilitate the use of broadband OBS data; and 2) using these techniques to study the offshore structure of tectonic plate boundaries that are responsible for large destructive earthquakes.