Volcanoes at spreading centres on land often exhibit seismicity and
ground inflation months to years before an eruption, caused by a
gradual influx of magma to the source reservoir. Deflation and seismicity
can occur on time scales of hours to days, and result from the injection
of magma into adjacent rift zones. Volcanoes at submarine rift zones,
such as Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific Ocean, have exhibited
similar behaviour, but a direct link between seismicity, seafloor
deformation and magma intrusion has never been demonstrated. Here
we present recordings from ocean-bottom hydrophones and an established
array of bottom-pressure recorders that reveal patterns of both microearthquakes
and seafloor deformation at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge,
before it erupted in April 2011. Our observations show that the rate
of seismicity increased steadily during a period of several years,
leading up to an intrusion and eruption of magma that began on 6
April 2011. We also detected a sudden increase in seismo-acoustic
energy about 2.6 h before the eruption began. Our data indicate that
access to real-time seismic data, projected to be available in the
near future, might facilitate short-term forecasting and provide
sufficient lead-time to prepare in situ instrumentation before future
intrusion and eruption events.
%0 Journal Article
%1 dziak_etal:2012
%A Dziak, R. P.
%A Haxel, J. H.
%A Bohnenstiehl, D. R.
%A Chadwick, W. W.
%A Nooner, S. L.
%A Fowler, M. J.
%A Matsumoto, H.
%A Butterfield, D. A.
%D 2012
%I Nature Publishing Group
%J Nature Geoscience
%K geophysics seismology
%N 7
%P 478--482
%R 10.1038/ngeo1490
%T Seismic precursors and magma ascent before the April 2011 eruption
at Axial Seamount
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1490
%V 5
%X Volcanoes at spreading centres on land often exhibit seismicity and
ground inflation months to years before an eruption, caused by a
gradual influx of magma to the source reservoir. Deflation and seismicity
can occur on time scales of hours to days, and result from the injection
of magma into adjacent rift zones. Volcanoes at submarine rift zones,
such as Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific Ocean, have exhibited
similar behaviour, but a direct link between seismicity, seafloor
deformation and magma intrusion has never been demonstrated. Here
we present recordings from ocean-bottom hydrophones and an established
array of bottom-pressure recorders that reveal patterns of both microearthquakes
and seafloor deformation at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge,
before it erupted in April 2011. Our observations show that the rate
of seismicity increased steadily during a period of several years,
leading up to an intrusion and eruption of magma that began on 6
April 2011. We also detected a sudden increase in seismo-acoustic
energy about 2.6 h before the eruption began. Our data indicate that
access to real-time seismic data, projected to be available in the
near future, might facilitate short-term forecasting and provide
sufficient lead-time to prepare in situ instrumentation before future
intrusion and eruption events.
@article{dziak_etal:2012,
abstract = {Volcanoes at spreading centres on land often exhibit seismicity and
ground inflation months to years before an eruption, caused by a
gradual influx of magma to the source reservoir. Deflation and seismicity
can occur on time scales of hours to days, and result from the injection
of magma into adjacent rift zones. Volcanoes at submarine rift zones,
such as Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific Ocean, have exhibited
similar behaviour, but a direct link between seismicity, seafloor
deformation and magma intrusion has never been demonstrated. Here
we present recordings from ocean-bottom hydrophones and an established
array of bottom-pressure recorders that reveal patterns of both microearthquakes
and seafloor deformation at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge,
before it erupted in April 2011. Our observations show that the rate
of seismicity increased steadily during a period of several years,
leading up to an intrusion and eruption of magma that began on 6
April 2011. We also detected a sudden increase in seismo-acoustic
energy about 2.6 h before the eruption began. Our data indicate that
access to real-time seismic data, projected to be available in the
near future, might facilitate short-term forecasting and provide
sufficient lead-time to prepare in situ instrumentation before future
intrusion and eruption events.},
added-at = {2012-09-01T13:08:21.000+0200},
author = {Dziak, R. P. and Haxel, J. H. and Bohnenstiehl, D. R. and Chadwick, W. W. and Nooner, S. L. and Fowler, M. J. and Matsumoto, H. and Butterfield, D. A.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/207227e19c6260f8e657795336f55db7c/nilsma},
doi = {10.1038/ngeo1490},
interhash = {3386072ead820097cd548ce2d5d15342},
intrahash = {07227e19c6260f8e657795336f55db7c},
journal = {Nature Geoscience},
keywords = {geophysics seismology},
month = jul,
number = 7,
pages = {478--482},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
timestamp = {2021-02-09T13:26:52.000+0100},
title = {Seismic precursors and magma ascent before the April 2011 eruption
at Axial Seamount},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1490},
volume = 5,
year = 2012
}