The acoustic signatures of ground acceleration, gas expansion, and spall fallback in experimental volcanic explosions

Abstract

Infrasound and high-speed imaging during a series of field-scale buried explosions suggest new details about the generation and radiation patterns of acoustic waves from volcanic eruptions. We recorded infrasound and high-speed video from a series of subsurface explosions with differing burial depths and charge sizes. Joint observations and modeling allow the extraction of acoustic energy related to the magnitude of initial ground deformation, the contribution of gas breakout, and the timing of the fallback of displaced material. The existence and relative acoustic amplitudes of these three phases depended on the size and depth of the explosion. The results motivate a conceptual model that relates successive contributions from ground acceleration, gas breakout, and spall fallback to the acoustic amplitude and waveform characteristics of buried explosions. We place the literature on infrasound signals at Santiaguito Volcano, Guatemala, and Sakurajima and Suwonosejima Volcanoes, Japan, in the context of this model.