April 2026

I participated in fieldwork in Yellowstone with Will, a University of Washington graduate student, working with fiber-optic sensing in a volcanic and hydrothermal environment.

Deployment

The deployment connected field logistics, fiber-optic cable handling, DAS instrumentation, and volcano seismology. Yellowstone is a powerful place to think about how dense seismic sensing can help observe volcanic and hydrothermal systems.

Snowy river landscape in Yellowstone
Snowy Yellowstone landscape during the April deployment.
DAS instrumentation rack during the Yellowstone deployment
DAS instrumentation during the deployment.
Bison in Yellowstone during the April field deployment
Yellowstone field conditions in April.
Hot spring landscape in Yellowstone
Hydrothermal landscape in Yellowstone.
Yellowstone canyon landscape with snow
Yellowstone canyon landscape.
DAS data record from the Yellowstone deployment
Example DAS record from the deployment.

Takeaways

  • DAS field deployments require careful coordination between instrumentation, cable layout, and site conditions.
  • Hydrothermal and volcanic environments are ideal places to think about dense seismic monitoring.
  • Fieldwork helps connect signal processing with real deployment constraints.