Volcano Deformation Sources at Tungurahua Volcano from Finite Element Methods and Multidisciplinary Data Integration

Abstract:

Tungurahua volcano has been intermittently erupting since 1999, with observed deformation between 2007-2011 using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) from the ALOS satellite of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Our recent analysis during that time period has provided insights into the characteristics of the subsurface, suggesting multiple connected magma chambers underneath the edifice with distinct temporal and spatial behaviors. However, the previous source models are too simplistic and fail to incorporate realistic physical properties and forces acting within the volcano that would generate the observed deformation. We use deformation data from InSAR and solve for the optimal deformation source parameters with Finite Element Methods (FEM) by incorporating into the models the material heterogeneities (e.g. temperature, density, elastic, viscoelastic), and stresses (e.g. background stresses, edifice loading, magma chamber overpressure) acting on the volcano. We attempt to integrate previous multidisciplinary volcanological studies with our results to constrain the subsurface characteristics and understand the volcanic processes generating the observed deformation.