Haruhisa Nakamichi

Source process of very long period seismic events associated with the 1998 activity of Iwate Volcano, northeastern Japan

We observed very long period seismic events that are associated with the 1998 activity of Iwate Volcano, northeast Japan. The events show a dominant period of 10 s and duration of 30–60 s, often with accompanying short-period waves at the beginning and at the end of the long-period signals. By analyzing the broadband seismograms we find that the source elongates in the east-west direction for ∼4 km at a depth of 2 km beneath the western part of Iwate Volcano. Results of moment tensor inversions show a source mechanism of mutual deflation and inflation of two chambers located at the western and eastern edges of the source region. The source region coincides with the low seismic velocity zone detected by seismic tomography and is very close to the locations of pressure sources estimated from crustal deformation data. On the basis of these results we infer that the very long period seismic events are generated by transportation and movement of magmatic fluid (hot water and/or magma) in a shallow part of the volcano. We further present a simple source model of very long period seismic events based on one-dimensional flow dynamics and propose a new parameter to characterize the size of very long period event: the energy flow rate, which is obtained by dividing the seismic moment by the dominant period. The energy flow rate was estimated as 3.1×1012 J/s for the event on July 29, 1998.

Thermomechanical controls on magma supply and volcanic deformation: application to Aira caldera, Japan.

Ground deformation often precedes volcanic eruptions, and results from complex interactions between source processes and the thermomechanical behaviour of surrounding rocks. Previous models aiming to constrain source processes were unable to include realistic mechanical and thermal rock properties, and the role of thermomechanical heterogeneity in magma accumulation was unclear. Here we show how spatio-temporal deformation and magma reservoir evolution are fundamentally controlled by three-dimensional thermomechanical heterogeneity. Using the example of continued inflation at Aira caldera, Japan, we demonstrate that magma is accumulating faster than it can be erupted, and the current uplift is approaching the level inferred prior to the violent 1914 Plinian eruption. Magma storage conditions coincide with estimates for the caldera-forming reservoir ~29,000 years ago, and the inferred magma supply rate indicates a ~130-year timeframe to amass enough magma to feed a future 1914-sized eruption. These new inferences are important for eruption forecasting and risk mitigation, and have significant implications for the interpretations of volcanic deformation worldwide.

Continuous long-term array analysis of seismic records observed during the 2011 Shinmoedake eruption activity of Kirishima volcano, southwest Japan

We deployed a seismic array at a site 5 km east of Shinmoedake volcano, in the Kirishima volcanic complex of southwest Japan, five days after the sub-Plinian eruption on 26 January, 2011. The array record between February and September 2011 included explosion earthquakes and episodes of weak continuous tremor during eruption periods. We estimated slownesses and back azimuths of seismic waves on a sliding 1-min window using the semblance method. The slownesses of the weak continuous tremor clustered within the range 0.2–0.8 s/km, consistent with a mix of body and surface waves. A probabilistic approach based on a grid search was used to estimate the source locations of the explosion earthquakes and weak continuous tremor. The sources of the explosion earthquakes were beneath the crater at depths of −0.5–1 km above sea level, while the source of the weak continuous tremor was beneath the northern part of Shinmoedake at depths between 1 km below sea level and 1 km above sea level. This latter region corresponds to a shallow low-resistivity layer, suggesting that hydrothermal processes are more plausible than magmatic processes as the generating mechanism of the weak continuous tremor.