Application of Support Vector Machines for Seismogram Analysis and Differentiation

Abstract: Support Vector Machines (SVM) is a computational technique which has been used in various fields of sciences as a classifier with k-class classification capability, k being 2,3,4, etc. Seismograms of volcanic tremors often contain noises which can prove harmful for correct interpretation. The PCAB station (located in the northern region of Panarea island, Italy) has been recording seismic signals from a pump installed nearby, corrupting the useful signals from Strombolli volcano. SVM with k=2 classification technique after optimization through grid search has been instrumental in identification and classification of the seismic signals coming from pump, reaching a score of 99.7149% of patterns which match the actual membership of class (determined through cross-validation). The predicted labels of SVM has been used to estimate the pump's duration of activity leading to the declaration of corresponding seismograms redundant (not fit for processing and interpretation). However, when the same trained SVM was used to determine whether the seismogram used by Pino et al., 2011 recorded at the same PCAB station on 4th April, 2003 contained pump's signals or not, SVM showed 100% absence of pump's signals thereby authenticating the research work done in the latter.