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Hydroacoustic Measurements of the 2014 Eruption at Ahyi Volcano, 20.4°N Mariana Arc
Author(s) -
Metz D.,
Grevemeyer I.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl079983
Subject(s) - submarine volcano , volcano , seismology , geology , hydrophone , submarine , underwater , ambient noise level , sound (geography) , oceanography
Ahyi is a fully submerged arc volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands, northwestern Pacific Ocean. In April and May 2014, the volcano erupted over a period of 15 days. Results from direction‐of‐arrival calculations show that underwater sound phases associated with the episode were recorded as far as Wake Island, where a hydrophone triplet array is operated as part of the International Monitoring System. After a 3.5‐hr‐long sequence of hydroacoustic precursory events, explosive volcanic activity occurred in two distinct, several‐days‐long bursts, accompanied by a notable decrease in low‐frequency arrivals that may indicate a shift in signal source parameters. Acoustic resolution of the hydrophone data supersedes broadband networks by almost 1 order of magnitude, successfully identifying seismic events at Ahyi as low as 2.5 m b . Total radiated acoustic energy of the eruption is estimated at 6.4 10 17 J, which suggests that submarine volcanic activity contributed significantly to the ocean soundscape.