Landslides produced at the site where lava flows into the ocean at Kilauea
volcano have been detected hydroacoustically;. Up to 10 landslides per day
were detected by a hydrophone on the Hawaii Undersea Gee-Observatory (HUGO)
, located 50 km south of the entry site. The largest of these landslides, p
artly subaerial events known as bench collapses! were detected by a network
of hydrophones in the eastern Pacific, 5000-7000 km away from the source.
The landslides display a characteristic spectra signature easily recognizab
le among other signals such as earthquake T-phases and anthropogenic noises
. The fact that signals are detected at great distances suggests that hydro
acoustic detection of landslides could he a powerful tool in tsunami monito
ring and modeling efforts.