Origin and Properties of Hydrothermal Tremor at Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, USA

Abstract

Geysers are rare geologic features that intermittently discharge liquid water and steam driven by heating and decompression boiling. The cause of variability in eruptive styles and the associated seismic signals are not well understood. Data collected from five broadband seismometers at Lone Star Geyser, Yellowstone National Park are used to determine the properties, location, and temporal patterns of hydrothermal tremor. The tremor is harmonic at some stages of the eruption cycle and is caused by near-periodic repetition of discrete seismic events. Using the polarization of ground motion, we identify the location of tremor sources throughout several eruption cycles. During preplay episodes (smaller eruptions preceding the more vigorous major eruption), tremor occurs at depths of 7-10 m and is laterally offset from the geyser's cone by~5 m. At the onset of the main eruption, tremor sources migrate laterally and become shallower. As the eruption progresses, tremor sources migrate along the same path but in the opposite direction, ending where preplay tremor originates. The upward and then downward migration of tremor sources during eruptions are consistent with warming of the conduit followed by evacuation of water during the main eruption. We identify systematic relations among the two types of preplays, discharge, and the main eruption. A point-source moment tensor fit to low-frequency waveforms of an individual tremor event using half-space velocity models indicates average V S ≳ 0.8 km/s, source depths 4-20 m, and moment tensors with primarily positive isotropic and compensated linear vector dipole moments.

The 2018 reawakening and eruption dynamics of Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest active geyser

“…1 when ζ, a conversion factor of mechanical work into kinetic and potential energies, is varied. Data are from the following sources: Vanna, Kovarny, Bol’shoy, and Velikan ( 56 ); El Jefe ( 64 ); Vega Rinconada ( 49 ); Strokkur and Geysir ( 57 ); Steamboat ( 22 ); Old Faithful ( 60 , 61 ); and Lone Star ( 58 , 59 , 63 ). Uncertainties are shown only if provided in the cited papers, and uncertainties in jet height are likely greater than 10%.…”

“…Changes in thermodynamic conditions inside the conduit, such as a sharp increase in temperature with depth, have been interpreted as shallow water sources for Vega Rinconada in El Tatio, Chile ( 49 ) and Strokkur ( 57 ). Seismic surveys have provided useful insights about source dimensions and depth at Lone Star ( 58 , 59 ), Old Faithful ( 60 , 61 ), and Steamboat in Yellowstone ( 22 ), as well as for El Jefe in El Tatio, Chile ( 62 ). The height of the water column can vary from one eruption to another (e.g., refs.…”

Thumping Cycle Variations of Doublet Pool in Yellowstone National Park, USA

“…situ pressure recordings confirmed bubble collapse in a shallow conduit during the preparation stage of a geyser eruption as one of the major sources of hydrothermal tremor (Kedar et al, 1998), although other tremor source mechanisms such as conduit resonance and bubble nucleation have also been proposed (Munoz-Saez, Nayak et al, 2020;Rudolph et al, 2018;Vandemeulebrouck et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2019). These observations and proposed mechanisms also share some similarities to volcanic banded tremor (Cannata et al, 2010;Fujita, 2008).…”

“…The spatiotemporal distribution of the tremor sources has been used to illuminate the subsurface conduit system and infer the physical state of the geyser system during each stage of the eruption cycle (Eibl et al., 2021; Vandemeulebrouck et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2019, 2021). Simultaneous seismic and in situ pressure recordings confirmed bubble collapse in a shallow conduit during the preparation stage of a geyser eruption as one of the major sources of hydrothermal tremor (Kedar et al., 1998), although other tremor source mechanisms such as conduit resonance and bubble nucleation have also been proposed (Munoz‐Saez, Namiki, et al., 2015; Munoz‐Saez, Manga et al., 2015; Nayak et al., 2020; Rudolph et al., 2018; Vandemeulebrouck et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2019). These observations and proposed mechanisms also share some similarities to volcanic banded tremor (Cannata et al., 2010; Fujita, 2008).…”

Hydraulic Fracturing-driven Infrasound Signals -A New Class of Signal for Subsurface Engineering

“…Subsurface infrasound can be generated in a wide variety of geological settings where a fluiddriven volumetric process is involved, for example hydrothermal fluid circulation in volcanos, (e.g., Lehr et al, 2019), geysers (e.g., Nayak et al, 2020) and oceanic magmatism (e.g., Sgroi et al, 2009)…”