Long-term explosion records from two erupting submarine volcanoes in the Mariana and Tonga island-arcs
Abstract
Records of explosive activity longer than a few weeks are rare for subaerial volcanoes, and nonexistent for submarine volcanoes. From February 2008 to February 2009, we recorded a year long, continuous acoustic and volcanic plume record from NW Rota-1, an erupting submarine volcano located within the Mariana Arc. From December 2008 to May 2009, we also obtained acoustic records of ongoing explosion and tremor activity at West Mata, a submarine volcano in the NE Lau basin near the Tofua volcanic-arc. At NW Rota-1, a hydrophone and turbidity/temperature sensor were moored ~150 m from the volcano’s summit vent (520 m deep). The volcano exhibited frequent degassing explosions lasting 60-120 s, separated by quiet periods of 10-30 s, for the entire 12-months resulting in >284,000 discrete explosion events. The explosions are broadband (1-80 Hz) with typical source levels of 191 dB re μPa @ 1m. Harmonic tremor is also present at times in the explosions, typically with <5 Hz fundamentals and extremely high-amplitude overtone peaks near 30 Hz. The fundamentals are likely due to resonance of the entire volcanic edifice, while the peak overtone may represent reverberation of an internal structure, possibly the conduit feeding the summit vent. The hydrophone also documents a 103 decrease in explosion amplitude over the year, marked by a sharp reduction after 6 mos, which may be part of the typical eruption cycle or due to burial of the vent by accumulated ejecta. Explosions at the summit vent produced a steady series of volcanic plumes that carried ash and hydrothermal precipitates into the water column. Hundreds of short-lived turbidity spikes are present, with no long periods of quiescence, indicating changes in explosion intensity did not affect the pattern of volcanic plume creation. Our data are the first to confirm the frequent creation and dispersal of submarine volcanic plumes on a year-long scale. In December 2008 a moored hydrophone (250 Hz) was deployed ~30 km from West Mata, a near-arc boninite volcano discovered actively erupting the month before. An ROV cruise in May 2009 deployed two short-term, high-frequency (1024 Hz) hydrophones within 50 m of the Hades volcanic vent (1208 m deep). Both the long-term and in situ hydrophones detected explosive activity as well as both mono- and polychromatic volcanic tremor throughout their records. ROV video shows the acoustic signals are from violent degassing bursts from within lava extruding at the Hades vent (summit of West Mata). The explosions exhibit both short (10s of sec) and long (2-10 min) duration modes of cyclic activity. Many explosion signals also show harmonic tremor within their codas indicative of resonance from within the volcanic edifice. Frequently the explosion records are overlapped by monochromatic tremor from a narrow band within a range from 20-100 Hz. The source of this resonance is not yet clear (although not man-made) and is possibly from a nearby, unseen vent or magma movement within the volcanic edifice.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFM.V44B..02D
- Keywords:
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- 3025 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Marine seismics;
- 7280 SEISMOLOGY / Volcano seismology;
- 8427 VOLCANOLOGY / Subaqueous volcanism;
- 8428 VOLCANOLOGY / Explosive volcanism