Metz, D., Watts, A. B., Grevemeyer, Ingo , Rodgers, M. and Paulatto, M. (2016) Ultra long-range hydroacoustic observations of submarine volcanic activity at Monowai, Kermadec Arc. Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (4). pp. 1529-1536. DOI 10.1002/2015GL067259.

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Abstract

Monowai is an active submarine volcanic center in the Kermadec Arc, Southwest Pacific Ocean. During May 2011, it erupted over a period of 5 days, with explosive activity directly linked to the generation of seismoacoustic T phases. We show, using cross-correlation and time-difference-of-arrival techniques, that the eruption is detected as far as Ascension Island, equatorial South Atlantic Ocean, where a bottom moored hydrophone array is operated as part of the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Hydroacoustic phases from the volcanic center must therefore have propagated through the Sound Fixing and Ranging channel in the South Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, a source-receiver distance of ~15,800 km. We believe this to be the furthest documented range of a naturally occurring underwater signal above 1 Hz. Our findings, which are consistent with observations at regional broadband stations and long-range, acoustic parabolic equation modeling, have implications for submarine volcano monitoring.

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