Hilary R. Martens

Seismic imaging of the shallow crust beneath the Krafla central volcano, NE Iceland

We studied the seismic velocity structure beneath the Krafla central volcano, NE Iceland, by performing 3-D tomographic inversions of 1453 earthquakes recorded by a temporary local seismic network between 2009 and 2012. The seismicity is concentrated primarily around the Leirhnjukur geothermal field near the center of the Krafla caldera. To obtain robust velocity models, we incorporated active seismic data from previous surveys. The Krafla central volcano has a relatively complex velocity structure with higher P wave velocities (V_p) underneath regions of higher topographic relief and two distinct low-V_p anomalies beneath the Leirhnjukur geothermal field. The latter match well with two attenuating bodies inferred from S wave shadows during the Krafla rifting episode of 1974–1985. Within the Leirhnjukur geothermalreservoir, we resolved a shallow (−0.5 to 0.5 km below sea level; bsl) region with low-V_p/V_s values and a deeper (0.5–1.5 km bsl) high-V_p/V_s zone. We interpret the difference in the velocity ratios of the two zones to be caused by higher rock porosities and crack densities in the shallow region and lower porosities and crack densities in the deeper region. A strong low-V_p/V_s anomaly underlies these zones, where a superheated steam zone within felsic rock overlies rhyolitic melt.

The sensitivity of surface mass loading displacement response to perturbations in the elastic structure of the crust and mantle

Surface mass loads generate a rich spectrum of deformation responses in the solid Earth that might be exploited to probe the material properties of the crust and mantle. Here we present a detailed examination of load-induced surface displacements and their sensitivities to systematic perturbations in elastic Earth structure. We compute Love numbers and displacement load Greens functions (LGFs) by integrating the equations of motion for spheroidal deformation of a radially heterogeneous and self-gravitating Earth. Sensitivity kernels are derived for individual Love numbers numerically using finite differences and quasi-analytically using calculus of variations. We then generate sensitivity kernels for displacement LGFs by systematically perturbing the preliminary reference Earth model. We find that displacement LGFs are most sensitive to elastic structural perturbations within 500 km depth from the surface and for short source-receiver distances. For separate perturbations to the shear modulus, bulk modulus, and density within the crust and mantle, the sensitivity kernels exhibit unique patterns, consistent with the possibility to constrain the parameters independently given a spatially distributed set of sufficiently accurate loading response observations. The sensitivity to density structure, however, is generally weak in comparison to elastic structure. We also examine the sensitivity of surface displacements caused by M_2 ocean tidal loading (OTL) to systematic perturbations in the elastic moduli and density. Since OTL-induced surface displacements are load and site dependent, we focus on high-resolution profiles across Iceland as a case study. The sensitivity kernels constitute a key element in the formulation of the inverse problem with application to geodetic tomography.