EAR-PF: Volume flux comparison using seismically derived tilt, infrasound, and gas data at Stromboli Volcano, Italy

Mckee Kathleen F, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Kathleen F. McKee has been granted an NSF EAR Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out research and education plans at the Carnegie Instituion for Science. This project will quantitatively assess the input and output volume flux of Stromboli Volcano, Italy using infrasound, tilt-affected seismic, and gas data. This invesgitation will contribute to the need to quantitatively link subsurface changes to the subsequent erupted product. Volcano observatories use a variety of geophysical techniques to monitor volcanoes in near-real time to mitigate the threats volcanoes pose to local and global communities. For people living near and aircraft flying over active volcanoes, the improved understanding of the relationship between monitored volume input and detected volume output will enhance volcano monitoring in an effort to minimize casualties and economic loss when eruptions occur. PI McKee will also create a public virtual tour of Stromboli, develop a K-12 education activity exploring how scientists use sound to study the earth and train a graduate student in seismo-acoustic field techniques. Multiparameter data will be used to constrain the input and output volume flux at Stromboli Volcano, Italy. Three-component, broadband seismometers are sensitive to tilt. As such, PI McKee and collaborators will deploy a seismo-acoustic network and a gas measurement instrument (MultiGas) at Stromboli. PI McKee will characterize and locate the pre-explosion tilt and subsequent acoustic sources to determine the volume input (via tilt) and output (via acoustic and gas data). She will also investigate the relationship between the tilt and acoustic sources, and how they relate to degassing through comparisons with MultiGas data and SO2 flux from a permanently installed ultraviolet camera. Infrasound determined volume flux is selected for this study, as it is robust to environmental changes (e.g. clouds, lack of daylight, and plume direction change from wind) that can hinder gas quantification methods. This will provide vital information on the current and future eruptive activity at Stromboli Volcano and aid in understanding general connections between subsurface and subaerial processes. This will be the first quantitative volatile budget evaluation using tilt and infrasound data.