Induced Resonance and Forces Imparted on Buildings from Volcano Infrasound

Fuego, an active volcano in Guatemala, explodes regularly and generates powerful infrasound for which amplitude regularly exceeds 10 Pa at 10 km where rural communities are located. This study focuses on infrasound recorded at the Fuego Volcano Observatory, a ∼250 m³ building located ∼8 km from the vent. Records from infrasound sensors deployed on either side of a wall facing the volcano were used to measure differential dynamic pressures of more than 50 Pa imparted to the wall facing the volcano. We calculated the building’s infrasonic response as a function of frequency for situations where interior doors were both open and closed and found a remarkably well-defined ∼7.5 Hz tone induced by acoustic oscillations when the interior door was open. The transfer functions, from a week-long period of recording and 34 explosions, show that closing internal doors diminishes infrasonic resonance and could potentially reduce window damage.