Terrestrial Radar Interferometric Measurement of Surface Deformation of Halemaʻmaʻu Lava Lake, Kīlauea

Taha Sadeghi Chorsi¹, Elisabeth Gallant², Lichen Forster², Jacqueline Dixon¹, Timothy Dixon¹

• Affiliations: ¹University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA; ²University of Hawiʻi at Hilo, Hilo HW, USA

• Presentation type: Poster

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

• Poster Board Number: 37

• Programme No: 2.3.23

• Theme 2 > Session 3

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Abstract

We used a terrestrial radar interferometer (TRI) from Gamma Remote Sensing to measure surface deformation of an active lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu at Kīlauea's summit on January 19, 2023, two weeks after the eruption began on January 5, 2023. We observed a 90-minute deformation event with a maximum line of sight displacement of 35 mm. Radar interferograms were generated every 90 seconds over a ninety-minute period of intermittent inflation using a scanning real aperture radar operating at Ku band (17.4 mm wavelength). This technique allows observation of phenomena at a temporal scale (minutes), spatial scale (meters) and resolution (millimeters) that has not been previously possible. We model the intrusion as a shallow sill, 10 to 100 meters below the lava lake surface. We suggest that such intrusions are frequent and may represent the 'quanta' of processes that help to maintain the lava lake. Small volume pulses of gas-rich magma help to provide the necessary flux of heat and mass to compensate for cooling, outgassing, and recycling of dense degassed magma to deeper levels, sustaining the lava lake in a near-steady-state.