Seismicity of the Society and Austral Hotspots in the South Pacific: Seismic Detection, Monitoring and Interpretation of Underwater Volcanism

Since the oceanic column provides an optical, thermal, and to a large extent, chemical shield for the remote sensing of the planet’s surface, careful monitoring of seismic activity on the ocean floor remains one of the few methods of studying submarine volcanic activity. This line of research goes back to more than fifty years ago, when based on a suggestion of (1946), (1954) obtained a detailed history of the 1952 eruption of the Myojin Volcano, south of Japan, using teleseismic T waves propagated in the oceanic column over a distance of 8600 km to a receiving array on the California coastline.