Geophysics and Seismology Commons^™

Detecting Geyser Activity With Infrasound, Jeffrey B. Johnson, J. F. Anderson, R. E. Anthony, M. Sciotto

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

We monitored geyser activity in the Lower Geyser Basin (LGB) of Yellowstone National Park with dual four-element microphone arrays separated by ~ 600 m. The arrays were independently used to identify incident coherent plane wave energy, then conjoint cross beam back-azimuths from the two arrays were used to precisely locate signal sources. During a week in August 2011 we located repeating infrasound events, peaked in energy between 1 and 10 Hz, originating from at least five independent geothermal features, including the episodically erupting Great Fountain, Fountain and Kaleidoscope Geysers, as well as periodic infrasound from nearby Botryoidal and persistent sound …