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Volcano Seismology: An Introduction

Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

Definition of the Subject

Volcano seismology is a science about seismic signals originating from volcanoes and associated with volcanic activity. Keiiti Aki, the outstanding seismologist of the twentieth century, wrote in his Preface to the Collection of papers “Volcanic Seismology” (Springer) in 1982: “The subject of Volcanic Seismologyis not only the most beautiful and spectacular, but also the most difficult to study of all the subjects seismologists have encountered on Earth. This is because seismic sources in volcanoes involve dynamic motion of gas, fluid and solid, and propagation paths in volcanoes are usually extremely heterogeneous, anisotropic and absorptive, with irregular topographies and interfaces including cracks of all scales and orientations. Thus, volcanic seismology is the most challenging to seismologists requiring ingenuity in designing experiments and interpreting observations.” The study of the origin of these signals generated by volcanic activity, their...

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Abbreviations

Earthquake:

The rupturing along the fractures and faults as well as the eruptive activity produces the seismic waves, which could vibrate the Earth surface as earthquakes. The site of initial radiation of seismic waves in the interior is earthquake focus, or hypocenter; its projection to the surface is epicenter. The seismic waves are divided into body waves and surface waves. The body waves P (compressional waves with volumetric changes) and S (shear waves without volume change) radiate from the earthquake focus; the surface Rayleigh and Love waves are formed as a result of the interaction of body waves with the surface of the Earth. The record of seismic waves is a seismogram. The earthquake size is described by magnitude M (or m), the conventional value proportional to the earthquake energy, and by seismic moment Mo. The focal mechanism characterizes the stress system acting in the earthquake source zone, while the stress drop gives the value of stress release during the earthquake. Earthquakes may form the foreshock–aftershock sequences with a main shock and the swarm sequences without any main shock.

Volcano:

A volcano is a site at which a molten matter, known as magma and formed in the depths of the crust of the Earth, reaches the surface of the Earth from the interior. The material ejected through the vent of volcano frequently accumulates around the opening, building up a volcanic edifice. Between the main elements of a volcano, there are a volcanic cone that is the result of the accumulation of ejected material around the vent and a crater that is the surface connection of the volcanic conduit through which the ejected material reaches the surface. The crater may be situated on the summit of the cone (summit crater) or on a slope of the cone (flank crater). Beneath a volcano, we have the magma feeding system of the volcano that consists of a deep magma reservoir, or chamber which is a reservoir of magma in the shallow part of lithosphere from which volcanic material is derived; an intermediate magma storage, a place between the magma chamber and the Earth’s surface, where magma may be collected before an eruption; and the feeding conduit, connecting the magma collectors with the surface. The surface appearance of magma is called lava.

Volcanic eruption:

A volcanic eruption is a process of material transport from the Earth’s depths to the surface during the activity of volcanoes fed by basaltic (containing < 52 % SiO 2 ), andesitic (containing 52–66 % SiO 2 ), or dacitic (containing > 66 % SiO 2 ) magmas. The volcanic eruptions may be of central (or summit) type with an eruption of the summit crater; flank (or lateral) type, with an eruption of the flank crater; or fissure type, when the eruption takes place from an elongated fissure rather than from a central vent. The explosive eruptions are classified as Strombolian explosions producing eruption columns of tens or hundreds of meters in height; Vulcanian explosions which are characterized by a small amount (less than 1 km3) of erupted products and high eruption columns, which can reach 10–20 km altitude; and Plinian explosions whose eruption columns may reach up to 45 km altitude.

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Acknowledgements

I thank my colleagues from all over the volcanic world for the collaboration and useful discussions. The comments proposed by Robin Matoza, Gregory Waite, and Willie Lee helped me to improve the text. I use in my entry many seismic records and video images obtained from Colima Volcano Observatory by teams headed by Gabriel Reyes and Mauricio Bretón, respectively. The catalogs and seismic records of volcanic signals were provided by my friends from different volcanological centers. The processing of the majority of digital signals was performed using the program DEGTRA provided by Mario Ordaz.

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  1. Observatorio Vulcanológico, Universidad de Colima, Calle Manuel Payno 209, 28017, Colima, COL, Mexico

    Vyacheslav M. Zobin

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    Robert A. Meyers

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Zobin, V.M. (2014). Volcano Seismology: An Introduction. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_607-1

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  1. Latest

    Volcano Seismology: An Introduction
    Published:
    23 May 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_607-2

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    Volcano Seismology: An Introduction
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    11 April 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_607-1

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