Machine Learning and Deep Learning for Earthquake Monitoring: A Systematic Review of Distributed Acoustic Sensing Applications

Abstract

Earthquakes remain among the most destructive natural hazards, necessitating reliable monitoring and early warning systems for effective risk mitigation. Recent advances in machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have significantly improved seismic signal analysis, enabling more accurate event detection, phase picking, classification, and magnitude estimation. This study presents a systematic review of ML- and DL-based approaches for earthquake monitoring, with particular emphasis on Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) as an emerging technology for high-resolution, real-time seismic observation. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a systematic literature search was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar, yielding 252,223 initial records. After applying the predefined publication period, removing duplicate records, conducting relevance screening, and performing eligibility assessment, 138 peer-reviewed studies published between 2021 and 2025 were retained for detailed analysis and synthesis. The review reveals a significant transition from conventional signal-processing techniques to advanced artificial intelligence-based approaches, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) networks, Transformer-based architectures, hybrid models, and Bayesian learning methods for uncertainty quantification. The findings further demonstrate that Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) has emerged as a transformative sensing technology because of its dense spatial coverage, high spatial resolution, and continuous monitoring capability. However, several challenges remain, including the lack of standardized datasets, limited model generalization across diverse geological settings, insufficient model interpretability, high computational complexity, and the limited integration of uncertainty-aware approaches for real-time seismic monitoring. This review identifies these critical research gaps and highlights promising future research directions, including multimodal data fusion, interpretable artificial intelligence, physics-informed learning, self-supervised learning, and robust uncertainty quantification for next-generation intelligent seismic monitoring systems. Unlike previous review studies that primarily focus on individual machine learning techniques or conventional seismic monitoring, this review provides a comprehensive and systematic synthesis of recent advances in machine learning, deep learning, and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), identifies current research gaps, and offers practical recommendations to guide future research on intelligent earthquake monitoring systems.