Seulgi Moon

About

Seulgi Moon is an Associate Professor at UCLA in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her research group, the UCLA Geomorphology Lab, focuses on the study of stress, fault, and river flows. Professor Moon mentors a diverse group of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students, many of whom collaborate with other experts in the field. Her lab's work contributes to understanding the dynamics of Earth's surface processes and their interactions with tectonic and hydrological systems.

Research topics

• Machine Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Geomorphology
• Computer Science
• Geology
• Petrology
• Geotechnical engineering
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Geochemistry

Selected publications

• Landslide susceptibility modeling by interpretable neural network

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2023 · 89 citations

  Abstract Landslides are notoriously difficult to predict because numerous spatially and temporally varying factors contribute to slope stability. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been shown to improve prediction accuracy but are largely uninterpretable. Here we introduce an additive ANN optimization framework to assess landslide susceptibility, as well as dataset division and outcome interpretation techniques. We refer to our approach, which features full interpretability, high accuracy, hi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Present‐Day Stress Field Influences Bedrock Fracture Openness Deep Into the Subsurface

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2020 · 47 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Fracturing of bedrock promotes water‐rock interactions and influences the formation of the life‐sustaining layer of soil at Earth's surface. Models predict that present‐day stress fields should influence bedrock fracture openness, but testing this prediction has proven difficult because comprehensive fracture data sets are rarely available. We model the three‐dimensional present‐day stress field beneath the deglaciated, low‐relief landscape of Forsmark, Sweden. We account for ambient re…

  DOI

• Cascading land surface hazards as a nexus in the Earth system

  Science · 2025-06-26 · 30 citations

  review

  This Review synthesizes progress and outlines a new framework for understanding how land surface hazards interact and propagate as sediment cascades across Earth's surface, influenced by interactions among the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and solid Earth. Recent research highlights a gap in understanding these interactions on human timescales, given rapid climatic change and urban expansion into hazard-prone zones. We review how surface processes such as coseismic landslides and post-fire…

  PublisherDOI

• The grain size of sediments delivered to steep debris‐flow prone channels prior to and following wildfire

  Earth Surface Processes and Landforms · 2024-04-05 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Debris flows are powered by sediment supplied from steep hillslopes where soils are often patchy and interrupted by bare‐bedrock cliffs. The role of patchy soils and cliffs in supplying sediment to channels remains unclear, particularly surrounding wildfire disturbances that heighten debris‐flow hazards by increasing sediment supply to channels. Here, we examine how variation in soil cover on hillslopes affects sediment sizes in channels surrounding the 2020 El Dorado wildfire, which bu…

  PublisherDOI

• Residence Time of Over‐Steepened Rock Masses in an Active Mountain Range

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2022-04-11 · 7 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract In uplifting mountains, hillslopes steepen toward a threshold angle set by substrate material strength. Hillslopes beyond the threshold angle, referred to as excess topography, are mechanically unstable. The residence time scale of rock masses in excess topography ( T ex ) is critical for understanding time scales of surface processes and landscape evolution in steep mountains. However, T ex remains loosely constrained for varying slopes and lithologies. Here, we calculate T ex in the e…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Structural Constraints on Microcontinent Formation, Gulf of California

  NSF · $329k · 2017–2023

• Collaborative Research: Network Cluster: Bedrock controls on the deep critical zone, landscapes, and ecosystems

  NSF · $350k · 2020–2026

• CAREER: Understanding the Effects of Bedrock Fractures and Weathering on Shallow and Deep-seated Landslides

  NSF · $538k · 2020–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Nathan D. Brown

  58 shared

• Edward J. Rhodes

  37 shared

• Sourav Saha

  31 shared

• Katherine M. Scharer

  Earthquake Science Center

  26 shared

• G. E. Hilley

  Stanford University

  22 shared

• Gen Li

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  22 shared

• Marina O. Argueta

  Planetary Science Institute

  20 shared

• Bryan Castillo

  19 shared

Labs

• UCLA Geomorphology LabPI

  Understanding and protecting our home in the universe

Education

• Ph.D., Geological and Environmental Sciences

  Stanford University

  2013

• M.S., Earth System

  Seoul National University

  2007

• B.S., Earth System

  Seoul National University

  2005

Similar researchers at University of California, Los Angeles

• Vassilis Angelopoulosh-107
• David Jewitth-76
• Craig Manningh-75