Rodrigo Chi Durán

Rodrigo Chi Durán

Seismic-Acoustic Officer · CTBTO · Vienna, Austria

Hello, I’m Rodrigo Chi Durán (徐慶賢/徐庆贤). I am a Seismic-Acoustic Officer at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, Austria. I hold a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from UC Berkeley and trained in Electrical Engineering at the Universidad de Chile. My research focuses on seismic sources, forensic seismology and outer core dynamics. I’m always happy to discuss research and potential collaborations.

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Background

Education

Interests

Research

Seismic sources and forensic seismology

My research focuses on the seismic sources of earthquakes, explosions, and collapses. At the CTBTO, I work on the seismic monitoring behind the verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, improving event characterization methods and supporting the data analysis process.

IC.MDJ BHZ

Vertical component at IC.MDJ (Mudanjiang, China), about 370 km from the 3 September 2017 DPRK test. Bandpass 0.8–6 Hz, amplitude compressed for display. P picked automatically with STA/LTA at +50.1 s. Data: EarthScope / IRIS.

Publications

6 papers · 2 in review

  1. 2024Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America

    Joint Inversion of Regional Waveform, First-Motion Polarity, and Synthetic Aperture Radar Surface Displacement for the Fourth and Sixth North Korean Declared Nuclear Explosions

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Douglas S. Dreger, Arthur J. Rodgers

    Extends our joint seismic and InSAR inversion to the 2016 and 2017 declared North Korean nuclear tests. A layered velocity model with topography improves the location, depth, and seismic moment used to estimate yield.

  2. 2023Geophysical Research Letters

    Extracting Spatial–Temporal Coherent Patterns in Geomagnetic Secular Variation Using Dynamic Mode Decomposition

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Bruce Buffett

    Dynamic mode decomposition of the CHAOS-7 field model at high latitudes finds two waves, with periods of about 19 and 58 years. The 60-year wave matches predictions for zonal waves in a stratified layer at the top of the core.

  3. 2021Geophysical Research Letters

    Signatures of High-Latitude Waves in Observations of Geomagnetic Acceleration

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Margaret S. Avery, Bruce A. Buffett

    Westward-moving patches of geomagnetic acceleration at high latitudes are best explained by zonal MAC waves. That explanation requires a stratified layer more than 100 km thick at the top of the core.

  4. 2021The Seismic Record

    Joint Regional Waveform, First-Motion Polarity, and Surface Displacement Moment Tensor Inversion of the 3 September 2017 North Korean Nuclear Test

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Douglas S. Dreger, Arthur J. Rodgers, Avinash Nayak

    A moment tensor inversion that combines regional waveforms, first-motion polarities, and SAR surface displacement for the 2017 North Korean test. It fits all three data sets and narrows the range of possible source types.

  5. 2020Geophysical Research Letters

    Decomposition of Geomagnetic Secular Acceleration Into Traveling Waves Using Complex Empirical Orthogonal Functions

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Margaret S. Avery, Nicholas Knezek, Bruce A. Buffett

    Complex empirical orthogonal functions split the secular acceleration in CHAOS-6 into traveling waves with periods of 7 to 20 years. The waves help constrain the stratification at the top of the core.

  6. 2017Journal of Seismology

    Automatic detection of P- and S-wave arrival times: new strategies based on the modified fractal method and basic matching pursuit

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Diana Comte, Marcos Diaz, Jorge F. Silva

    Two automatic methods for picking P- and S-wave arrival times, one based on a modified fractal method and one on basic matching pursuit.

  7. In review

    Joint Moment-Tensor and Cross-Correlation Analysis of the 31 July 2025 El Teniente Mine Seismic Event, Chile

    Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Douglas S. Dreger, Sergio Barrientos

    Characterizes the 31 July 2025 seismic event at the El Teniente mine in Chile by combining a moment tensor inversion with waveform cross-correlation.

  8. In review

    Time residuals of T-phases from subduction zone earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean

    Tiago C. A. Oliveira, Rodrigo Chi-Durán, Urtnasan Khukhuudei

    Studies the travel-time residuals of hydroacoustic T-phases generated by subduction zone earthquakes around the Pacific Ocean.

Teaching

Lecturer

Teaching assistant

Projects

Teaching material and family history.

Cover of Problemas Propuestos y Resueltos de Electromagnetismo, 2017 Course notes · 2017

Problemas Propuestos y Resueltos de Electromagnetismo

Problems I wrote and collected as a teaching assistant for Electromagnetism at the Universidad de Chile: 18 chapters, from Coulomb’s law to Maxwell’s equations, about 200 problems in 385 pages, in Spanish. A new edition is coming soon. Download PDF (10 MB) → Family history · ongoing

族譜 The Chi (徐/Xu) family tree

My family has a documented history of almost 900 years, thirty generations down to me. I have gathered, modernized and studied our genealogy, and built this site to keep documenting it and working on it. Enter →

Contact

Email

rodrigo.chi@ctbto.org

Google Scholar

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LinkedIn

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