Origin of Shallow Volcanic Tremor: The Dynamics of Gas Pockets Trapped Beneath Thin Permeable Media
2019
Girona, Társilo | Caudron, C. (Corentin) | Huber, Christian
Linking volcano‐seismic signals with subsurface processes is crucial to improve the forecasting of volcanic eruptions. One of the most enigmatic signals is shallow volcanic tremor, a highly periodic ground vibration that is typically sourced beneath the crater of active volcanoes, is long lasting (from minutes to years), appears during unrest periods, and frequently precedes eruptions. In this paper, we demonstrate that shallow tremor can be produced by periodic pressure oscillations emerging spontaneously beneath permeable media (e.g., fractured magma caps). These pressure oscillations are the result of three concurrent processes: (a) the transient porous flow of gases through the permeable cap; (b) the temporary accumulation of these gases beneath the cap, forming a gas pocket; and (c) the random supply of volatiles from deeper levels. For highly permeable media (≥10⁻¹² m²; realistic for shallow volcanic edifices), the pressure in subsurface gas pockets is governed by the equation of a linear oscillator; hence, under proper conditions, periodic pressure oscillations emerge during the transfer of gases from the Earth's interior to the surface. Our model is consistent with geophysical data showing that the tremor source is localized at a fixed region and can explain the main characteristics of ground vibrations, including frequency gliding, variations of seismic amplitude prior to eruptions, and the different types of tremor observed. For thin permeable caps (<100 m), we find that different eruption mechanisms (e.g., magma ascent vs. cap sealing) leave distinct footprints in the tremor properties, thus opening new perspectives to forecast the type and style of impending eruptions.
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