ABR: Field, Laboratory, and Numerical Studies of Geyser Eruptions

间歇泉是间歇性喷发蒸汽和液态水混合物的泉水。它们是受欢迎的旅游景点，每年都有数百万人在黄石国家公园观看间歇泉喷发。间歇泉是地热系统的表面表现形式，可以洞察火山活跃区的热和流体流动。间歇式喷泉还提供了一个天然实验室来研究喷发过程以及可以在喷发前、喷发中和喷发后测量的地球物理和水文信号。由于它们比火山喷发小，而且喷发更频繁，它们提供了收集大量数据和开发综合和解释测量数据的方法的机会。人们对间歇泉及其沉积物进行了研究，以了解极端环境中的生命。在海底和泥火山上也观察到了水和碳氢化合物的间歇泉行为。因此，对间歇泉行为的更好理解可能会产生对自然界中其他自组织的、间歇性的过程的理解，这些过程是由于能量和质量的局部输入而产生的。尽管进行了两个世纪的科学研究，但对间歇泉现象的解释有限或缺乏。这个项目将结合现场测量、实验室研究和间歇泉系统中多相流的数值模拟来解决关于间歇泉过程的以下基本问题：为什么间歇泉如此罕见？管道管道如何影响喷发开始和喷发之间的间隔？间歇泉为什么相互作用，又是如何相互作用的？哪些外部过程(如潮汐、气压变化、温度变化、风速、地震)和内部动力(如前一次喷发的持续时间、管道几何形状)影响喷发的间隔和持续时间？对这些问题的回答可能会对触发地震活动、热液爆炸和火山喷发提供新的见解。

Geysers are springs that intermittently erupt mixtures of steam and liquid water. They are popular tourist attractions, with a few million people watching geysers erupt in Yellowstone National Park each year. Geysers are the surface expression of geothermal systems and provide insight into heat and fluid flow in volcanically active areas. Geysers also provide a natural laboratory to study eruption processes and the geophysical and hydrological signals that can be measured before, during, and after an eruption. Because they are smaller than volcanic eruptions, and erupt more frequently, they provide an opportunity to collect abundant data and develop approaches for integrating and interpreting measurements. Geysers and their deposits have been studied to understand life in extreme environments. Geyser-like behavior of water and hydrocarbons has also been observed on the ocean floor and at mud volcanoes. Thus improved understanding of geyser behavior may yield understanding into other self-organized, intermittent processes in nature that result from localized input of energy and mass. Despite two centuries of scientific study, explanations for geysering phenomena are limited or lacking. This project will integrate field measurements, laboratory studies, and numerical simulations of multiphase flow in geyser systems to address the following basic questions about the geysering process: Why are geysers so rare? How does conduit plumbing affect eruption initiation and the interval between eruptions? Why and how do geysers interact with each other? Which external processes (e.g., tides, variations in barometric pressure, temperature variations, wind speed, earthquakes) and internal dynamics (e.g., duration of preceding eruption, plumbing geometry) influence the interval between and duration of eruptions? Answers to these questions may offer new insight into triggered seismicity, hydrothermal explosions, and volcanic eruptions.