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Imaging magma transfer during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption (La Palma, Canary Islands) using distributed acoustic sensing.

Luca D'Auria1,2, Alberto Falcón García3,Javier Preciado-Garbayo4, Aarón Álvarez Hernández1, David Martínez van Dorth1,2,Germán D. Padilla1,2, Rubén García-Hernández1, Víctor Ortega Ramos^1^^ ^, Nemesio M. Pérez1,2

  • Affiliations: 1Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain  2Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables (ITER), Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain  3CanaLink, Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain 4Aragon Photonics Labs. S.L.U. C. Zaragoza, Spain

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Friday 16:30 - 18:00, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 21

  • Programme No: 1.5.28

  • Theme 1 > Session 5

Abstract

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool in different seismological applications. Until now, the focus has been on earthquake detection, location, and subsurface imaging. Here, we present an application of DAS for imaging deep seismo-volcanic sources that were active on Cumbre Volcano (La Palma, Canary Islands) during the 2021 Tajogaite eruption, which lasted rom Sep. 19th until Dec. 13th of 2021. On Oct. 19th we deployed the fiber optics cable which begins about 10 km east of the eruptive vent, and  reaches distances of up to 50 km. The DAS recordings of the volcanic tremor revealed a complex wavefield mainly consisting of surface waves. The array analysis shows that, apart from the ballistic arrivals of surface waves radiated by the eruptive vents, the wavefield contains arrivals related to the scattering from topographic features of the island and its surroundings. Furthermore, it revealed that, apart from surface waves, the wavefield contains arrivals compatible with body waves radiated by deeper sources. We interpret these sources as the effect of the volcanic tremor generated by the flow of magma within the system of feeder dikes. Using DAS with our analysis technique allowed us to characterise the spatio-temporal evolution of the seismic activity along the feeding system. We discuss its relationship with other geophysical, geochemical, and petrological parameters and its implications for a better definition of the eruptive mechanism.