Lower St. Lawrence Seaway Amphibious Seismic Network for earthquakes and marine soundscape monitoring

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.2044

Keywords:

ocean bottom seismometer, intraplate seismicity, marine soundscape

Abstract

The Lower St. Lawrence Seaway (LSLS) is located within one of the most active seismic zones in eastern Canada. It is also home to a range of marine mammals in an environment of intensive fishing and cargo shipping. With the dual objectives to better understand the geohazards and marine soundscape, we operated along the LSLS an amphibious seismic network consisting of 8 broadband ocean bottom seismometers (OBS), 48 short-period nodal sensors, and 4 broadband land stations, with various operation periods between 2023 and 2025. This report documents the deployments, examines data quality, and presents preliminary results from the first month of OBS recording. The OBS recordings show higher noise levels across all frequencies compared to the land broadband stations, with particularly high noise between periods of 0.2-2 s and >10 s on the horizontal components. Long-period noise amplitude correlates closely with tidal cycles, suggesting tidally modulated riverbed currents are the primary cause. The seismicity catalog from combined OBS and land stations shows two times more earthquakes than the Canadian National Earthquake Database in the first month of deployment, as well as many suspected blasts. We also show clear detections of fin whale and blue whale calls at multiple OBS sites, illustrating the potential for whale call location.

References

Barlett, M. L., & Wilson, G. R. (2002). Characteristics of small boat acoustic signatures. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112(5_Supplement), 2221–2221. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4778778 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4778778

Baumgartner, M. F., Van Parijs, S. M., Wenzel, F. W., Tremblay, C. J., Carter Esch, H., & Warde, A. M. (2008). Low frequency vocalizations attributed to sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124(2), 1339–1349. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2945155 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2945155

Bell, S. W., Forsyth, D. W., & Ruan, Y. (2014). Removing noise from the vertical component records of ocean-bottom seismometers: Results from year one of the Cascadia Initiative. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 105, 300–313. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120140054 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120140054

Bent, A. L. (2018). Magnitudes at close and very close distances in Eastern Canada: issues and recommendations. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8232, 32 p. https://doi.org/10.4095/308131 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4095/308131

Bromirski, P. D., Duennebier, F. K., & Stephen, R. A. (2005). Mid-ocean microseisms. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 6(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004GC000768 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GC000768

Burtin, A., Bollinger, L., Vergne, J., Cattin, R., & Nabelek, J. L. (2008). Spectral analysis of seismic noise induced by rivers: A new tool to monitor spatiotemporal changes in stream hydrodynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research, 113(B05301). https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005034 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005034

Chien, J., & Liu, Y. (2026). Effectively Distinguishing Blast and Earthquake Sources in Eastern Canada. Seismica, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.1964 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.1964

Corela, C., Loureiro, A., Duarte, J. L., Matias, L., Rebelo, T., & Bartolomeu, T. (2023). The effect of deep ocean currents on ocean-bottom seismometers records. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 23(4), 1433–1451. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1433-2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1433-2023

Crawford, W. C., & Webb, S. C. (2000). Identifying and removing tilt noise from low-frequency (0.1 Hz) seafloor vertical seismic data. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 90, 952–963. https://doi.org/10.1785/0119990121 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0119990121

Embriaco, D. G. M., Frugoni, F., Monna, S., Etiope, G. E., Gasperini, L., Polonia, A., Del Bianco, F., Çağatay, M. N., Ulgen, U. B., & Favali, P. (2014). Monitoring of gas and seismic energy release by multiparametric benthic observatory along the North Anatolian Fault in the Sea of Marmara (NW Turkey). Geophysical Journal International, 196(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggt436 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggt436

Essing, D., Schlindwein, V., Schmidt‐Aursch, M. C., Hadziioannou, C., & Stähler, S. C. (2021). Characteristics of current‐induced harmonic tremor signals in ocean‐bottom seismometer records. Seismological Research Letters, 92(5), 3100–3112. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200397 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200397

Fan, W., McGuire, J. J., & Shearer, P. M. (2020). Abundant Spontaneous and Dynamically Triggered Submarine Landslides in the Gulf of Mexico. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087213 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087213

Galbraith, P. S., Chassé, J., Shaw, J.-L., Dumas, J., & Bourassa, M.-N. (2024). Physical Oceanographic conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during 2023. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 378(Canadian Technical Report of Hydrography and Ocean Sciences).

Goblot, E., Liu, Y., Plourde, A., Cauchy, P., Mérindol, J., Bernier-Breton, C., Li, G., & Roth, B. (2024). Spatiotemporal variability of fin whale and blue whale calls detected by land seismometers along the Lower St. Lawrence Seaway. Seismica, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i2.1153 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i2.1153

Gong, J., & Fan, W. (2022). Seismicity, fault architecture, and slip mode of the westernmost Gofar transform fault, East Pacific Rise. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127, e2022JB024918. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB024918 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB024918

Govi, M., Maraga, F., & Moia, F. (1993). Seismic detectors for continuous bed-load monitoring in a gravel stream. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 38(2), 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626669309492650 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626669309492650

Hasselmann, K. (1963). A statistical analysis of the generation of microseisms. Reviews of Geophysics, 1(2), 177–210. https://doi.org/10.1029/RG001i002p00177 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/RG001i002p00177

Hilmo, R., & Wilcock, W. S. D. (2020). Physical sources of high-frequency seismic noise on Cascadia Initiative ocean bottom seismometers. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 21(10). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020GC009085 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GC009085

Janiszewski, H. A., Gaherty, J. B., Abers, G. A., Gao, H., & Eilon, Z. C. (2019). Amphibious surface-wave phase-velocity measurements of the Cascadia subduction zone. Geophysical Journal International, 217(3), 1929–1948. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggz051 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggz051

Klein, F. W. (2002). User’s guide to HYPOINVERSE-2000, a Fortran program to solve for earthquake locations and magnitudes. USGS Open Report, 2002–171, 123 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr02171 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr02171

Kowarski, K., Moors-Murphy, H., Maxner, E., & Cerchio, S. (2019). Western North Atlantic humpback whale fall and spring acoustic repertoire: Insight into onset and cessation of singing behavior. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(4), 2305–2316. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5095404 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5095404

Kuna, V. M., & Nábělek, J. L. (2021). Seismic crustal imaging using fin whale songs. Science, 371(6530), 731–735. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf396 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf3962

Kuna, V. M., Nábělek, J. L., & Braunmiller, J. (2019). Mode of slip and crust–mantle interaction at oceanic transform faults. Nature Geoscience, 12(2), 138–142. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0287-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0287-1

Lamontagne, M., Keating, P., & Perreault, S. (2003). Seismotectonic characteristics of the Lower St. Lawrence Seismic Zone, Quebec: insights from geology, magnetics, gravity, and seismics. Can. J. Earth Sci., 40, 317–336. https://doi.org/10.1139/e02-104 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/e02-104

Liu, Y., & Harrington, R. M. (2015). Seismicity monitoring along the St. Lawrence paleorift system in Quebec [Data set]. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/gm3m-q077

Liu, Y., Plourde, A., Nedimovic, M., Zhang, M., & Darbyshire, F. D. (2023). Nodal array monitoring of earthquakes and whale calls along the Lower St. Lawrence Seaway [Data set]. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/tktn-xb44

Liu, Y., Plourde, A., Nedimovic, M., Zhang, M., Darbyshire, F. D., Cauchy, P., Pellerin, A., Cairns, G., Bosman, K., & Thibodeau, J. (2023). Lower St Lawrence Ocean Bottom Experiment [Dataset]. National Facility for Seismological Investigations. https://doi.org/10.7914/x5w5-z042

Longuet-Higgens, M. S. (1950). A theory of the origin of microseisms. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., 243(857), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1950.0012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1950.0012

McGuire, J. J., Collins, J. A., Lizarralde, D., Behn, M. D., Gouédard, P., van der Hilst, R. D., Roland, E., & Boettcher, M. S. (2012). Variations in earthquake rupture properties along the Gofar transform fault, East Pacific Rise. Nature Geoscience, 5, 336–341. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1454 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1454

McKenna, M. F., Wiggins, S. M., & Hildebrand, J. A. (2013). Relationship between container ship underwater noise levels and ship design, operational and oceanographic conditions. Scientific Reports, 3(1), 1760. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01760 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01760

McNamara, D. E., & Buland, R. P. (2004). Ambient noise levels in the continental United States. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94(4), 1517–1527. https://doi.org/10.1785/012003001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/012003001

Mellinger, D. K., & Clark, C. W. (2003). Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) sounds from the North Atlantic. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114(2), 1108–1119. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1593066 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1593066

Mérindol, M., St-Onge, G., Sultan, N., Lajeunesse, P., & Garziglia, S. (2022). Earthquake-triggered submarine landslides in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada) during the last two millennia and the record of the major 1663 CE M ≥7 event. Quaternary Science Reviews, 291, 107640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107640 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107640

Mousavi, S. M., Ellsworth, W. L., Zhu, W., Chuang, L. Y., & Beroza, G. C. (2020). Earthquake transformer—an attentive deep-learning model for simultaneous earthquake detection and phase picking. Nature Communications, 11(1), 3952. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17591-w

Mousavi, S. M., Sheng, Y., Zhu, W., & Beroza, G. C. (2019). STanford EArthquake Dataset (STEAD): A global data set of seismic signals for AI. IEEE Access, 7, 179464–179476. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2947848 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2947848

Münchmeyer, J. (2024). PyOcto: A high-throughput seismic phase associator. Seismica, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.1130 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.1130

Niksejel, A., & Zhang, M. (2024). OBSTransformer: a deep-learning seismic phase picker for OBS data using automated labelling and transfer learning. Geophysical Journal International, 237(1), 485–505. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggae049 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggae049

Normandeau, A., Bourgault, D., Neumeier, U., Lajeunesse, P., St-Onge, G., Gostiaux, L., & Chavanne, C. (2020). Storm-induced turbidity currents on a sediment-starved shelf: Insight from direct monitoring and repeat seabed mapping of upslope migrating bedforms. Sedimentology, 67(2), 1045–1068. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12673 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12673

NRCan. (1985). Natural Resources Canada. Canadian National Earthquake Database [Dataset]. Canadian Hazards Information Service. https://doi.org/10.17616/R3TD24.

Nuttli, O. W. (1973). Seismic wave attenuation and magnitude relations for eastern North America. Journal of Geophysical Research, 78(5), 876–885. https://doi.org/10.1029/JB078i005p00876 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/JB078i005p00876

Parisi, L., Augustin, N., Trippanera, D., Kirk, H., Dannowski, A., Matrau, R., Fittipaldi, M., Nobile, A., Zielke, O., Valero Cano, E., Hoogewerf, G., Aspiotis, T., Manzo-Vega, S., Espindola Carmona, A., Barreto, A., Juchem, M., Suhendi, C., Schmidt-Aursch, M., Mai, P. M., & Jónsson, S. (2024). The First Network of Ocean Bottom Seismometers in the Red Sea to Investigate the Zabargad Fracture Zone. Seismica, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.729 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v3i1.729

Plourde, A. P., & Nedimović, M. R. (2021). Earthquake depths, focal mechanisms, and stress in the Lower St. Lawrence Seismic Zone. Seismological Research Letters, 92(4), 2562–2572. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200429 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220200429

Plourde, A. P., & Nedimović, M. R. (2022). Monitoring fin and blue whales in the Lower St. Lawrence Seaway with onshore seismometers. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 8(4), 551–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.261 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.261

Roy, N., Simard, Y., Aulanier, F., & Giard, S. (2018). Fin whale continuous frequentation of St. Lawrence habitats detected from multi-year passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), 2018(59).

Savage, B., Toomey, D., & others. (2017). Seismicity and fault structure of the Blanco Transform Fault from OBS deployments. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 18, 1188–1204. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GC006572

Schlindwein, V., Li, S., Kirk, H., & Schmidt-Aursch, M. C. (2025). Seismic soundscape of the Arctic Ocean: seasonal effects of sea ice and swell on deep-sea ocean bottom seismometer records. Geophysical Journal International, 242(1), ggaf143. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaf143 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaf143

Schmandt, B., Aster, R. C., Scherler, D., Tsai, V. C., & Karlstrom, K. (2013). Multiple fluvial processes detected by riverside seismic and infrasound monitoring of a controlled flood in the Grand Canyon. Geophysical Research Letters, 40(18), 4858–4863. https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50953 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50953

Shipton, M., Obradović, J., Mišković, N., & Diamant, R. (2025). Underwater radiated noise characteristics of small vessels - An analysis of the HearMyShip database. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 216, 117903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117903 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117903

Simard, Y., Roy, N., Aulanier, F., & Giard, S. (2016a). Blue whale continuous frequentations of St. Lawrence habitats from multi-year PAM series. Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), 2016(91).

Simard, Y., Roy, N., Gervaise, C., & Giard, S. (2016b). Analysis and modeling of 255 source levels of merchant ships from an acoustic observatory along St. Lawrence Seaway. J Acoust Soc Am., 140(3). https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4962557 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4962557

Simard, Y., Roy, N., Giard, S., & Aulanier, F. (2019). North Atlantic right whale shift to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2015, revealed by long-term passive acoustics. Endangered Species Research, 40, 271–284. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01005

St-Onge, G., Chapron, E., Mulsow, S., Salas, M., Viel, M., Debret, M., Foucher, A., Mulder, T., Winiarski, T., Desmet, M., Costa, P. J. M., Ghaleb, B., Jaouen, A., & Locat, J. (2012). Comparison of earthquake-triggered turbidites from the Saguenay (Eastern Canada) and Reloncavi (Chilean margin) Fjords: Implications for paleoseismicity and sedimentology. Sedimentary Geology, 243–244, 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2011.11.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2011.11.003

St-Onge, G., Duchesne, M. J., & Lajeunesse, P. (2011). Marine geology of the St. Lawrence Estuary. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 14(12003). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/14/1/012003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/14/1/012003

Wilcock, W. S. D. (2012). Tracking fin whales in the northeast Pacific Ocean with a seafloor seismic network. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 132(4), 2408–2419. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4747017 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4747017

Zhang, H., Schmidt-Aursch, M. C., Geissler, W. H., & Xing, J. (2023). Characteristics of the oceanic ambient seismic noise around Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic from OBS data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 128(6). http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022JB025884 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB025884

Zhang, M., Ellsworth, W. L., & Beroza, G. C. (2019). Rapid Earthquake Association and Location. Seismological Research Letters, 90(6), 2276–2284. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220190052 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220190052

Zhu, W., McBrearty, I. W., Mousavi, S. M., Ellsworth, W. L., & Beroza, G. C. (2022). Earthquake Phase Association Using Bayesian Gaussian Mixture Model. Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth, 127(5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023249 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023249

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2026-05-21

How to Cite

Liu, Y., Plourde, A., Cairns, G., Bosman, K., Thibodeau, J., Sirati, E., Chien, J., Darbyshire, F., Nedimović, M., Zhang, M., Zhang, W., Xu, J., Gurun, P., & Nedimović, F. (2026). Lower St. Lawrence Seaway Amphibious Seismic Network for earthquakes and marine soundscape monitoring. Seismica, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.26443/seismica.v5i1.2044

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Reports (excl. Fast Reports)

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Yajing Liu, Alexandre Plourde, Graeme Cairns, Katie Bosman, John Thibodeau, Elahe Sirati, Justin Chien, Fiona Darbyshire, Mladen Nedimović, Miao Zhang, Wenqiang Zhang, Jian Xu, Pinar Gurun, Forde Nedimović, and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Funding data