Abstract
The local seismicity during the 2012–2013 eruption of Tolbachik Volcano and the 2008–2009 steam–gas eruption of Koryakskii Volcano is here considered as resulting from injections of magma that produced dikes, sills, and renewed activity at preexisting faults. We identified plane-oriented earthquake clusters in order to reveal the above zones using earthquake catalogs made at the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences (KB GS RAS). Subsequent space–time analysis of these observations lends itself to the following interpretation. The November 27, 2012 Tolbachik lava eruption was preceded by an injection of magma resulting in a series of dikes trending west-northwestward in the range of absolute depths between–4 and +3 km in a zone situated southeast of the Ploskii Tolbachik Volcano edifice. The dikes penetrated into a nearly horizontal permeable zone at an absolute depth of approximately zero, producing sills and emplacing a magma-conducting dike along the top of the zone of cinder cones (the dip angle is 50° toward the azimuth 300°) 5.5 km from the epicenter of the initial magma injection. The summit steam–gas eruption of Koryakskii Volcano in 2008–2009 was preceded by magma filling a crustal chamber (the top of the chamber is at–3 km absolute depth; the chamber is 2.5 km across) close to the southwestern base of Koryakskii. Further, magma injection in a nearly north–south zone (7.5 by 2.5 km), the absolute depth between–2 and–5 km) in the north sector of Koryakskii Volcano was occurring concurrently with the summit steam–gas eruption. The injection of magma into the cone of Avacha Volcano (2010) produced sills (at altitudes between +1600 and +1900 m) and dikes (mostly striking northwest).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Belousov, A., Belousova, M., Edwards, B., et al., Overview of the precursors and dynamics of the 2012–2013 basaltic fissure eruption of Tolbachik Volcano, Kamchatka, Russia, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 2015, no. 307, pp. 22–37.
Bol’shoe treshchinnoe Tolbachinskoe izverzhenie, 1975–1976 gg., Kamchatka (The Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption, 1975–1976, Kamchatka), Fedotov, S.A., Ed., Moscow: Nauka, 1984 [Available in English: The Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption: Geological and Geophysical Data, 1975–1976, Fedotov, S.A. and Marchinin, E.K., Eds., Cambridge University Press, 1983].
Fedotov, S.A., Magmaticheskie pitayushchie systemy i mekhanizm izverzhenii vulkanov (Plumbing Systems and the Mechanism of Volcanic Eruptions), Moscow: Nauka, 2006.
Fedotov, S.A., Balesta, S.T., Dvigalo, V.N., et al., The New Tolbachik volcanoes, in Deistvuyushchie vulkany Kamchatki (Active Volcanoes of Kamchatka), vol. 1, Fedotov, S.A. and Masurenkov, Yu.P., Eds., Ch. X, Moscow: Nauka, 1991, pp. 275–279.
Fedotov, S.A., Sugrobov, V.M., Utkin, I.S., and Utkina, L.I., On the possibility of using heat stored in the magma chamber of the Avachinsky Volcano and the surrounding rock for heat and power supply, J. Volcanol. Seismol., 2007, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 28–41.
Fedotov, S.A., Utkin, I.S., and Utkina, L.I., The peripheral magma chamber of Ploskii Tolbachik, a Kamchatka basaltic volcano: Activity, location and depth, dimensions, and their changes based on magma discharge observations, J. Volcanol. Seismol., 2011, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 369–385.
Fedotov, S.A., Slavina, L.B., Senyukov, S.L., and Kuchai, M.S., Seismic processes and magma movement occurring during the Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption of 1975–1976 and during the Tolbachik Fissure Eruption of 2012–2013 in Kamchatka Peninsula, Geofizicheskie Protsessy i Biosfera, 2014, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 3–30.
Gudmundsson, A., Magma chambers: Formation, local stresses, excess pressures, and compartments, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 2015, no. 237–238, pp. 19–41.
Ivanov, V.V., A burst of activity on Koryakskii Volcano, Kamchatka in late 2008 and early 2009: Estimates of heat release, aqueous fluid discharge, a conceptual model for magma ascent, and a forecast of the evolution of the eruption, in Materialy konferentsii, posvyashchennoi Dnyu vulkanologa, 30–31 marta 2009 g. (Proc. conf. devoted to Volcanologist’s Day, March 30–31, 2009), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii: IViS DVO RAN, 2010, pp. 24–39.
Ivanov, V.V., The role of fluids in the generation of microearthquakes on volcanoes and in hydrothermal systems, in Tezisy XVIII ezhegodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi Dnyu vulkanologa “Vulkanizm i svyazannye s nim protsessy”, 30 marta—1 aprelya 2015 g. (Abstracts of reports at the 18th annual conference devoted to Volcanologist’s Day “Volcanism and Related processes”, March 1 to April 1, 2015), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii: IViS DVO RAN, 2015, pp. 164–169.
Kiryukhin, A.V., Manukhin, Yu.F., Fedotov, S.A., et al., Geological fluids in the Avacha–Koryakskii volcanogenic basin, Kamchatka, Geoekologiya, Inzhenernaya Geologiya, Gidrogeologiya, Geokriologiya, 2015a, no. 4, pp. 306–320.
Kiryukhin, A.V., Fedotov, S.A., and Kiryukhin, P.A., A geomechanical interpretation of the local seismicity prior to the November 27, 2012 eruption on Tolbachik Volcano, in Sbornik 18-i konferentsii, posvyashchennoi Dnyu vulkanologa (Collected papers delivered at the 18th conference devoted to Volcanologist’s Day), Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii: IViS DVO RAN, 2015b, pp. 266–269.
Kugaenko, Yu.A., Titkov, N.N., Saltykov, V.A., and Voropaev, P.V., An analysis of precursory phenomena for the 2012–2013 Tolbachik Fissure Eruption: Seismicity parameters and crustal strain as inferred from data supplied by the system of multidisciplinary monitoring of volcanic activity in Kamchatka, J. Volcanol. Seismol., 2007, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–27.
Kugaenko, Yu.A., Saltykov, V.A., and Voropaev, P.V., An analysis of the seismicity that preceded the Tolbachik Fissure Eruption of 2012–2013, in Zemletryaseniya Rossii v 2012 g. (Earthquakes in Russia in the Year 2012), Obninsk: GS RAN, 2014, pp. 82–86.
Lundgren, P., Kiryukhin, A., Milillo, P., and Samsonov, S., Dike model for the 2012–2013 Tolbachik eruption constrained by satellite radar interferometry observations, J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 2015, no. 307, pp. 79–88.
Senyukov, S.L., Nuzhdina, I.N., and Chebrov, V.N., Kamchatka volcanoes, in Zemletryaseniya Rossii v 2012 g. (Earthquakes in Russia in the Year 2012), Obninsk: GS RAN, 2014, pp. 77–81.
Senyukov, S.L., Nuzhdina, I.N., Droznina, S.Ya., et al., Seismic monitoring of the Plosky Tolbachik eruption in 2012–2013 (Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia), J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res., 2015, no. 307, pp. 47–59.
Sigmundsson, F., Hooper, A., Hreinsdorttir, S., et al., Segmented lateral dyke growth in a rifting event at Barrparbunga volcanic system, Iceland, Nature, 2015, vol. 517, pp. 191–194. doi 10.1038/nature14
Volynets, A.O., Melnikov, D.V., and Yakushev, A.I., First data on composition of the volcanic rocks of the IVS 50th anniversary Fissure Tolbachik eruption (Kamchatka), Doklady Earth Sciences, 2013, vol. 452(1), pp. 953–957. doi 10.1134/S1028334X13090201
Zemletryaseniya Rossii v 2012 g. (Earthquakes in Russia in the year 2012), Obninsk: GS RAN, 2014.
Zoback, M.D., Reservoir Geomechanics, Cambridge: University Press, 2010.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.V. Kiryukhin, S.A. Fedotov, P.A. Kiryukhin, 2016, published in Vulkanologiya i Seismologiya, 2016, No. 5, pp. 3–20.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kiryukhin, A.V., Fedotov, S.A. & Kiryukhin, P.A. A geomechanical interpretation of the local seismicity related to eruptions and renewed activity on Tolbachik, Koryakskii, and Avacha Volcanoes, Kamchatka, in 2008–2012. J. Volcanolog. Seismol. 10, 275–291 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0742046316040047
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0742046316040047