Imaging Magma Under St. Helens (iMUSH): Details of passive-source seismic deployment and preliminary 3-D velocity structure

Abstract:

The imaging Magma Under St. Helens (iMUSH) experiment aims to delineate the extent of the magmatic system beneath Mount St. Helens (MSH) in Washington State. The experiment involves active- and passive-source seismology, magnetotellurics, and geochemistry/petrology. Seventy passive-source broadband seismometers were deployed in a 100-km-diameter array centered on MSH, with an average spacing of 10 km, and a planned duration of two years. The deployment over two weeks in June 2014 involved a group of 18 people split into 6 teams. Approximately half of the seismic stations have aircell batteries and/or pole-mounted solar panels in order to maintain power through deep snow at higher elevations during the winter months. Data will be retrieved 2-4 times a year throughout the duration of the experiment. The first service run performed in mid-July 2014 had a 98.4% data recovery. This is one of the largest wide-aperture two-dimensional arrays covering a volcano anywhere.

The active-source portion of the experiment successfully set off 23 shots in late-July 2014. These were recorded clearly at permanent stations run by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network up to 200 km away, and are expected to be well-recorded on many of the 70 broadband seismometers in addition to the 2500 Reftek “Texans” deployed temporarily for this purpose. For the 2-4 weeks of broadband data collected in July, local earthquakes down to magnitude 0 are recorded across the array, with clear P- and S- arrivals. Earthquakes of this size occur daily within 50 km of MSH. We are keeping a careful catalog of all activity in the region for the duration of the iMUSH experiment.

We will pick P- and S-wave travel times at the 70 broadband stations from local earthquakes and active shots, for available data from between June and October 2014. We will also use a tomographic code (Preston et al, 2003, Science) to invert the travel times to obtain preliminary earthquake location and 3-D velocity structure.