Glenn Thompson

Research Assistant Professor (Geophysics/Volcano Seismology)

Contact

Office: SCA 226a
Email
CV

• Personal Research Website
• USF Seismology & Infrasound Group - ORCID 0000-0002-9173-0097
• Florida Space Institute - Defense Science and Technology Office

Biography

I began working at the University of South Florida in August 2013, joining well established groups in Volcanology and Geophysics, and a fledging Seismology group. Prior to this research position, I worked in real-time monitoring operations, beginning with 2 months at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) in 1996, 2 years at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) from 1998-2000, then back to MVO for 4 years as the Seismic Network Manager, followed by a return to Alaska for 7 years as a Staff Scientist at AVO and the Alaska Earthquake Center. Most of my work has been developing new, innovative seismic software to enhance seismic monitoring operations and public safety.

Education & Professional appointments

• Research Assistant Professor, University of South Florida (2013–present).
• Staff Seismologist / Software Architect, Alaska Volcano Observatory and Alaska Earthquake Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks (2006–2013).
• Senior Geophysicist / Applications Developer, British Geological Survey (2003–2006).
• Seismic Network Manager / Deputy Director, Montserrat Volcano Observatory (2000–2003).
• Seismologist / Programmer, Alaska Volcano Observatory, University of Alaska Fairbanks (1998–2000).
• D., Volcano Seismology, University of Leeds, UK (1999).
• Sc., Geophysics, University of Durham, UK (1995).
• Sc., Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, University of St Andrews, UK (1993).

Research AREAS

Volcano seismology; seismic and infrasound monitoring; volcanic hazards and early warning; environmental and rocket seismology; near-surface geophysics and karst; machine learning; scientific software and seismic data preservation.

research 

I study the vibrations and low-frequency sounds generated by volcanoes and other natural and human-made sources. My goal is to turn these signals into useful information about what is happening, where it is happening, and how hazards are changing. I develop monitoring methods that connect scientific advances with the practical needs of observatories, researchers, and public safety.

Volcano observatories catalog individual earthquakes, but some of the most important changes unfold over hours or days. I use seismic amplitudes to locate moving sources such as pyroclastic flows, and waveform classification to investigate how seismic activity changes over the course of an eruption.

My research draws on 17 years of observatory operations experience (1996–2013), including work at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, Alaska Volcano Observatory, and Alaska Earthquake Center. At Alaska Volcano Observatory I developed IceWeb so duty seismologists could assess tremor alarms from home. Spectrogram mosaics let them compare more than 100 stations across the Aleutian arc. Reduced displacement plots showed how the strength of the tremor evolved over longer intervals, e.g. the last week.

I also recover historical eruption records from Montserrat, Mount Pinatubo, Popocatépetl, and Nevado del Ruiz. A recovered waveform becomes much more useful when we can identify the station, reconstruct the instrument response, and compare the recording with observations from other eruptions.

At Kennedy Space Center I study how launches generate ground motion and low-frequency sound. In a 2022 pilot study we monitored wells alongside launches to investigate whether launch vibrations might affect shallow groundwater. I now lead USF’s contribution to a NASA-led collaboration studying launch signals on Florida’s Space Coast.

At Lafayette Blue Springs, I have worked with colleagues to investigate underground karst conduits using geophysical measurements. My environmental seismology interests also draw on earlier work monitoring lahars and flash floods.

usf research group and advising 

• Jacob Krier, Ph.D. student — advising since Fall 2025, with Sylvain Charbonnier; research training in seismic amplitude source location.
• Michael McNair, M.S. student, co-supervised with Pati Spellman.
• Selected completed advisees: Bradford Mack, M.S. (2024), advisor; Heather McFarlin, Ph.D. (2023), co-advisor; Alexandra Farrell, Ph.D. (2021), co-advisor.
• Additional mentoring includes graduate committee service, computational training for seismology students, and supervision of undergraduate research projects in Computational Seismology.

Publications

Google Scholar

Recent Grants and Awards

• PI on a NASA collaboration to monitor launch-related vibrations at Kennedy Space Center, $102,000 (2026–2027).
• Co-PI: Multi-Physics Geophysical Validation of Karst Conduit Geometry in Florida. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, $153,000 (2026); with Pati Spellman.
• PI: SHAARC: Scientific Research, Studies, and Analysis for Solar Radio Burst Instrumentation. NASA Kennedy Space Center, $301,219 (2021-2023).
• PI: Assessing the Response of GNS Science to Volcanic Unrest at White Island, New Zealand. WorkSafe New Zealand, $105,000 (2020).
• Co-PI: Improving Seismic Source Characterization in North Korea and Iran. U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, $399,877 (2020-2023); with Jochen Braunmiller.

teaching

My teaching connects computational skills with real seismic data and practical monitoring problems. Courses and training I have taught or co-taught include:

• MATLAB Programming (twice)
• Python Programming (twice)
• Time Series Analysis / Digital Signal Processing (twice)
• Computational Seismology (three times)
• Volcano-Seismic Monitoring (twice)
• Introduction to Seismology
• Topics in Volcano-Seismology
• Geovisualization

software and data infrastructure

• GISMO — lead developer of a MATLAB seismic analysis toolbox used for waveform analysis, visualization, and earthquake catalog studies.
• In addition to IceWeb, I developed swarm and tremor alarms, amplitude source location tools, and monitoring software for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
• FLOVOpy brings my observatory code into a common Python framework built on ObsPy. It recovers legacy VDAP/SUDS, RSAM and SSAM data, handles SDS archives and Seisan databases, generates IceWeb/Pensive-style spectrograms, locates sources from signal amplitudes, and extracts dozens of features from event and continuous waveforms for machine learning. I am migrating GISMO’s cross-correlation tools and plan to reimplement the IceWeb/Pensive browser and PeakMatch in Python.
• USF research infrastructure — management of the Seismology Group’s Mac/Linux computing environment, research data storage, and seismic and infrasound instrument pool; field deployment and user training.

leadership and service 

• Chair, College of Arts and Sciences Technology Committee (2024–2025). Member 2025-2026.
• Chair, School of Geosciences Technology Committee and Communications Committee (both 2024–2025).
• Service on the School of Geosciences Faculty Evaluation Committee (three times)
• Reviewer for National Science Foundation proposals and journals including Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, Frontiers in Earth Science, Seismological Research Letters, and Seismica.

datasets

Pinatubo 1991 seismic network data: https://doi.org/10.7914/seq1-hh72

Seismo Acoustic Study of Rocket Launches from Kennedy Space Center: https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/1R_2018