Listen, Watch, Learn: SeisSound Video Products

Online material: Sample SeisSound video products; MATLAB computer codes; sample data set. The increased popularity of YouTube videos has changed the format of how information is distributed and assimilated, highlighting the importance of including auditory information in videos. Videos that include sound also permeate the research community, as evidenced by their recent increase within online supplements to journal articles. Tapping into this new approach of information exchange, we are creating videos of seismic data that augment visual imagery with auditory counterparts. We term these “SeisSound” video products (Figure 1). We find the richness and complexities of seismic data can more easily be appreciated using these SeisSound products than using just the individual visual or the auditory components independently. Seismology includes the study of a large number of processes that affect the spectral content of a seismogram including spatial extent, duration, and directivity of a source; path effects such as attenuation, near-surface geology, and basin resonance; and the differences between abrupt tectonic earthquakes and unusual sources such as volcanic and non-volcanic tremor. With training, we can learn to discern the seismic signatures of these different processes, which can be inferred from the spectral content from time series, spectra, and spectrograms; however, subtle differences in these signals can be difficult to convey easily to a less experienced audience. A number of our senses include the ability to act as spectral analyzers. In the audible sound range we hear pitch, in the visible light range we see color, and in the low- and sub-audible range we can feel the difference between sudden and slow motions using our senses of motion and touch. For most people, the concepts of high or low pitch (frequency) and volume (amplitude) are innate. When we listen to a symphony orchestra, we can pick out the sound of individual …