Over the last 15 years, large horizontally mounted ring lasers have been used to study numerous geophysical phenomena. This paper provides examples of the sensitivity of large active ring laser interferometers to far field infrasound emissions from explosive volcanic eruptions. Volcanic infrasound is reported from representative eruptions of volcanoes Kelut (Kelud), Klyuchevskaya (Kliuchevskoi), Puyehua, Santa Maria, Sakurajima, and Tungurahua. The detected infrasound frequencies are in basic agreement with the far field air wave frequencies from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Cavities of large horizontally mounted active ring lasers contain two counter-propagating waves that in the presence Earth's rotation become traveling waves of slightly different frequencies. The Sagnac or beat frequency due to the difference in the traveling wave frequencies is modulated by geophysical phenomena, in this case volcanic infrasound. Signatures of the infrasound are found in the frequency modulated side bands.
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