EAR-PF: Seismological Investigations of Volcanic Eruptive Plumes

Shuler Ashley E, Palisades NY

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Ashley E. Shuler has been awarded an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a research and education program at the University of California Santa Cruz. The project will explore the possibility of using seismology as remote sensing tool to estimate height of volcanic ash columns, by evaluating assumptions in the Prejean and Brodsky [2011] method, that relates seismic waves to maximum heights of ash columns. Dr. Shuler will investigate the source process(es) of co-eruptive seismic tremor and distinguish which eruptive processes are well-coupled to the ground and measurable using seismic waves. This study will determine whether 1 Hz seismic data can reliably be used to estimate plume heights for a variety of different eruption types. Seismology will also be used to calculate a previously unmeasurable quantity - the spectrum of flow velocities inside large-scale eruptive plumes. These results will constrain the turbulence structure of eruption columns. The results from this investigation may have direct applicability to mitigating hazards posed to the aviation industry by explosive volcanic eruptions. The use of 1 Hz data has the potential to revolutionize the use of commonly deployed seismic instruments and enable near real-time monitoring of remote volcanoes. This study will provide a multidisciplinary, collaborative education for the post-doctoral fellow and two undergraduate students linked to both the academic and volcano monitoring communities. An integral component of the proposed work is public education and outreach at Alaska Volcano Observatory, an institutional partner for this project.