Stanford AI Technology Detects Hidden Earthquakes – May Provide Warning of Big Quakes

New technology from Stanford scientists finds long-hidden quakes, and possible clues about how earthquakes evolve. Tiny movements in Earth's outermost layer may provide a Rosetta Stone for deciphering the physics and warning signs of big quakes. New algorithms that work a little like human vision are now detecting these long-hidden microquakes in the growing mountain of seismic data. As part of his PhD studies in geophysics, he sat scanning earthquake signals recorded the night before, verifying that decades-old algorithms had detected true earthquakes rather than tremors generated by ordinary things like crashing waves, passing trucks or stomping football fans. "I did all this tedious work for six months, looking at continuous data," Mousavi, now a research scientist at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), recalled recently.