Comparative analysis of tectonic and volcanic tremors.

Shapiro, Nikolai

Comparative analysis of tectonic and volcanic tremors.

Monday, 22 February 2016

Nikolai Shapiro^1,2, Dmitry Droznin³, Svetlana Droznina³, William Frank^2,4, Harsha S Bhat², Sergey Senyukov³, Victor Chebrov³ and Evgenii Gordeev⁵, (1)Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, Russia, (2)Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris Sorbonne Cité, CNRS, Paris, France, (3)Kamchatkan Branch of the Russian Geophysical Survey, Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, Russia, (4)Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States, (5)Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Petropavlovsk Kamcha, Russia

Abstract:

We compare tectonic tremors observed in Guerrero, Mexico and volcanic tremors observed in Kamchatka, Russia. We analyze the data with an approach based on detection of repetitive signals in continuous seismic records. In Mexico, we use the data of the MASE network operated in 2005-2007 that recorded many episodes of tectonic tremors associated with the slow slip in the Mexican subduction zone. In Kamchatka we analyze records of permanent and temporary seismic stations operated between 2009 and 2004 in vicinity of several active volcanoes.

The main similarity between the observed tectonic and volcanic tremors is that both of them are associated with swarms of small and highly repetitive seismic events. In the case of tectonic tremors these events are called “Low Frequency Earthquakes” (LFE) and in case of volcanic tremors they are often called “Long Period” (LP) events. The swarms of repetitive events are produced by small non-destructive seismic sources. This similarity between the signals of the tectonic and the volcanic tremors might suggest possible similarities in their origin.