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/install earthquake-phase-association-seismic-picker-selection
Description
This is a summary the advantages and disadvantages of earthquake event detection and phase picking methods, shared by leading seismology researchers at the 2...
README (SKILL.md)
Seismic Event Detection & Phase Picking Method Selection Guide
Overview: Method Tradeoffs
When choosing an event detection and phase picking method, consider these key tradeoffs:
| Method | Generalizability | Sensitivity | Speed, Ease-of-Use | False Positives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STA/LTA | High | Low | Fast, Easy | Many |
| Manual | High | High | Slow, Difficult | Few |
| Deep Learning | High | High | Fast, Easy | Medium |
| Template Matching | Low | High | Slow, Difficult | Few |
- Generalizability: Ability to find arbitrary earthquake signals
- Sensitivity: Ability to find small earthquakes
Key insight: Each method has strengths and weaknesses. Purpose and resources should guide your choice.
STA/LTA (Short-Term Average / Long-Term Average)
Advantages
- Runs very fast: Automatically operates in real-time
- Easy to understand & implement: Can optimize for different window lengths and ratios
- No prior knowledge needed: Does not require information about earthquake sources or waveforms
- Amplitude-based detector: Reliably detects large earthquake signals
Limitations
- High rate of false detections during active sequences
- Automatic picks not as precise
- Requires manual review and refinement of picks for a quality catalog
Template Matching
Advantages
- Optimally sensitive detector (more sensitive than deep-learning): Can find smallest earthquakes buried in noise, if similar enough to template waveform
- Excellent for improving temporal resolution of earthquake sequences
- False detections are not as concerning when using high detection threshold
Limitations
- Requires prior knowledge about earthquake sources: Need template waveforms with good picks from a preexisting catalog
- Does not improve spatial resolution: Unknown earthquake sources that are not similar enough to templates cannot be found
- Setup effort required: Must extract template waveforms and configure processing
- Computationally intensive
Deep Learning Pickers
When to Use
- Adds most value when existing seismic networks are sparse or nonexistent
- Automatically and rapidly create more complete catalog during active sequences
- Requires continuous seismic data
- Best on broadband stations, but also produces usable picks on accelerometers, nodals, and Raspberry Shakes
- Use case: Temporary deployment of broadband or nodal stations where you want an automatically generated local earthquake catalog
Advantages
- No prior knowledge needed about earthquake sources or waveforms
- Finds lots of small local earthquakes (lower magnitude of completeness, Mc) with fewer false detections than STA/LTA
- Relatively easy to set up and run: Reasonable runtime with parallel processing. SeisBench provides easy-to-use model APIs and pretrained models.
Limitations
- Out-of-distribution data issues: For datasets not represented in training data, expect larger automated pick errors (0.1-0.5 s) and missed picks
- Cannot pick phases completely buried in noise - Not quite as sensitive as template-matching
- Sometimes misses picks from larger earthquakes that are obvious to humans, for unexplained reason
References
- This skill is a derivative of Beauce, Eric and Tepp, Gabrielle and Yoon, Clara and Yu, Ellen and Zhu, Weiqiang. Building a High Resolution Earthquake Catalog from Raw Waveforms: A Step-by-Step Guide Seismological Society of America (SSA) Annual Meeting, 2025. https://ai4eps.github.io/Earthquake_Catalog_Workshop/
- Allen (1978) - STA/LTA method
- Perol et al. (2018) - Deep learning for seismic detection
- Huang & Beroza (2015) - Template matching methods
- Yoon and Shelly (2024), TSR - Deep learning vs template matching comparison
Usage Guidance
This is a low-risk, read-only guidance document about seismic pickers. It does not install software, request credentials, or instruct the agent to access your system or data. Before relying on the recommendations, confirm the cited references and test any chosen method on small datasets relevant to your instruments (models can misbehave on out-of-distribution data). Also note the skill has no listed homepage or upstream source — if provenance is important, ask the publisher for original materials or verify against the referenced workshop page.
Capability Analysis
Type: OpenClaw Skill
Name: earthquake-phase-association-seismic-picker-selection
Version: 0.1.0
The skill bundle contains purely informational documentation (SKILL.md) comparing seismic event detection methods. There is no executable code, no network activity, and no evidence of prompt injection or malicious intent; the content is entirely consistent with its stated purpose as a research guide.
Capability Assessment
Purpose & Capability
The name and description match the SKILL.md content: a methodological summary for selecting seismic pickers. Nothing in the package requests unrelated resources (no env vars, binaries, or installs).
Instruction Scope
SKILL.md contains only descriptive guidance about STA/LTA, template matching, and deep-learning pickers; it does not instruct the agent to read files, access environment variables, call external endpoints, or perform system actions outside the stated purpose.
Install Mechanism
No install spec and no code files are present. Because this is instruction-only, nothing is written to disk and there is no runtime installation risk.
Credentials
The skill requires no environment variables, credentials, or config paths. There are no requests for unrelated secrets or system-level access.
Persistence & Privilege
The skill is user-invocable, not always enabled, and does not request elevated/long-lived presence or attempt to modify other skills or system settings.
How to Use
- Make sure OpenClaw is installed (local or Docker)
- Run the install command in chat:
/install earthquake-phase-association-seismic-picker-selection - After installation, invoke the skill by name or use
/earthquake-phase-association-seismic-picker-selection - Provide required inputs per the skill's parameter spec and get structured output
Version History
v0.1.0
Bulk publish from all-task-skills-dedup
Metadata
Frequently Asked Questions
What is seismic-picker-selection?
This is a summary the advantages and disadvantages of earthquake event detection and phase picking methods, shared by leading seismology researchers at the 2... It is an AI Agent Skill for Claude Code / OpenClaw, with 90 downloads so far.
How do I install seismic-picker-selection?
Run "/install earthquake-phase-association-seismic-picker-selection" in the OpenClaw or Claude Code chat to install it in one step — no extra setup required.
Is seismic-picker-selection free?
Yes, seismic-picker-selection is completely free, licensed under MIT-0. You can download, install and use it at no cost.
Which platforms does seismic-picker-selection support?
seismic-picker-selection is cross-platform and runs anywhere OpenClaw / Claude Code is available (cross-platform).
Who created seismic-picker-selection?
It is built and maintained by wu-uk (@wu-uk); the current version is v0.1.0.
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