Analogue modeling of instabilities in crater lake hydrothermal systems

We carried out analogue experiments on two‐phase boiling systems, using a porous vertical cylinder, saturated with water. The base of the cylinder was heated, and the top was cooled, as in a natural hydrothermal system. Previous work had shown that once the two‐phase zone reached a certain level, thermal instabilities would develop. We made measurements of the acoustic energy related to boiling, and we found that high levels of acoustic noise were associated with the part of the cycle in which there was upward water movement. We repeated our experiments with a cooling water tank at the top of the system, representing a crater lake. This showed that periodic thermal instabilities still developed in this situation. We then compared our analogue measurements to two natural systems known to exhibit periodic behavior. There is good agreement between the thermal and acoustic cycling seen in our model and the observations made at Inferno Crater Lake in the Waimangu Geothermal area, New Zealand, whose level cycles by nearly 10 m, with a typical period of 38 days. Particularly notable is how in both systems high levels of acoustic noise are associated with rising water level. The much larger Ruapehu Crater Lake, also in New Zealand, cycled with a period of several months to a year for over a decade prior to the 1995 eruption. Strong acoustic and seismic energy usually occurred just before the lake temperature started to rise. This suggests a slightly different model, in which the increasing two‐phase flow zone triggers more general convection once it reaches the base of the lake.