Vertical deformation measurements on the submerged south flank of Kīlauea volcano, Hawai'i reveal seafloor motion associated with volcanic collapse

[1] A four-year seafloor geodetic study was conducted to measure vertical deformation of the submerged south flank of Kīlauea volcano on the active Hilina slump. The Hilina slump is a site of significant deformation, major earthquakes with ground cracking and associated tsunami. A new technique was developed to measure vertical deformation on the seafloor using pressure sensors in campaign-style surveys. The data revealed the midslope bench of the offshore slump is uplifting at 9.0 ± 2.4 cm/a, but transitions to no significant deformation on the outer bench and slump toe. Elastic half-space inverse modeling of these data show that the observed deformation can be fit by seaward slip of 28.1 ± 7.3 cm/a extending from the East rift zone 27.0 ± 0.5 km on a gently island-dipping decollement fault plane at a depth of approximately 7 km. Modeling suggests that the outer bench is not currently deforming. Because the majority of Kīlauea is submerged, these offshore measurements are necessary to constrain the seaward extent of fault slip and the motion of the outer bench.

[1]  Paul Segall,et al.  Sudden aseismic fault slip on the south flank of Kilauea volcano , 2001, Nature.

[2]  D. Clague,et al.  Slope failure and volcanic spreading along the submarine south flank of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii , 2003 .

[3]  D. Swanson,et al.  The Pu'u 'Ō'ō-Kūpaianaha eruption of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai'i : the first 20 years , 2003 .

[4]  H. Fujimoto,et al.  Ocean bottom pressure variations in the southeastern Pacific following the 1997–98 El Niño event , 2003 .

[5]  W. Menke.  Geophysical data analysis : discrete inverse theory , 1984 .

[6]  James P. Terry,et al.  Nabukelevu volcano (Mt. Washington), Kadavu - a source of hitherto unknown volcanic hazard in Fiji , 2004 .

[7]  P. Labazuy,et al.  Landslides and spreading of oceanic hot-spot and arc shield volcanoes on Low Strength Layers (LSLs): an analogue modeling approach , 2005 .

[8]  M. Ellis,et al.  Topography and tectonics of the central New Madrid seismic zone: Results of numerical experiments using a three‐dimensional boundary element program , 1994 .

[9]  Donald A. Swanson,et al.  Displacement of the south flank of Kilauea Volcano; the result of forceful intrusion of magma into the rift zones , 1976 .

[10]  Roger P. Denlinger,et al.  SPREADING VOLCANOES 1 , 2000 .

[11]  W. Normark,et al.  Giant Hawaiian Landslides , 1994 .

[12]  Kenneth M. Yamashita,et al.  Ground deformation associated with the 1975 magnitude-7.2 earthquake and resulting changes in activity of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii , 1985 .

[13]  N. P. Fofonoff,et al.  Algorithms for Computation of Fundamental Properties of Seawater. Endorsed by Unesco/SCOR/ICES/IAPSO Joint Panel on Oceanographic Tables and Standards and SCOR Working Group 51. Unesco Technical Papers in Marine Science, No. 44. , 1983 .

[14]  W. Chadwick,et al.  Vertical deformation monitoring at Axial Seamount since its 1998 eruption using deep-sea pressure sensors , 2006 .

[15]  J. Carracedo,et al.  Growth, structure, instability and collapse of Canarian volcanoes and comparisons with Hawaiian volcanoes , 1999 .

[16]  S. Owen,et al.  Rapid Deformation of the South Flank of Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii , 1995, Science.

[17]  Dieterich,et al.  High magma storage rates before the 1983 eruption of kilauea, hawaii , 2000, Science.

[18]  Masataka Ando,et al.  "The Hawaii Earthquake of November 29, 1975: Low dip angle faulting due to forceful injection of magma"" , 1979 .

[19]  A. Borgia,et al.  Dynamic basis of volcanic spreading , 1994 .

[20]  D. Elsworth,et al.  Flank collapse triggered by intrusion : the Canarian and Cape Verde Archipelagoes , 1999 .

[21]  P. Segall,et al.  Rapid deformation of Kilauea Volcano: Global Positioning System measurements between 1990 and 1996 , 2000 .

[22]  Robert Y. Koyanagi,et al.  Isoseismal maps, macroseismic epicenters, and estimated magnitudes of historical earthquakes in the Hawaiian Islands , 1992 .

[23]  A. Tibaldi,et al.  Stability of a collapsing volcano (Stromboli, Italy) : Limit equilibrium analysis and numerical modelling , 2005 .

[24]  R. Denlinger,et al.  Stabilization of volcanic flanks by dike intrusion: an example from Kilauea , 1999 .

[25]  W. Duffield,et al.  Huge landslide blocks in the growth of piton de la fournaise, La réunion, and Kilauea volcano, Hawaii , 1982 .

[26]  S. Nooner,et al.  A new sea‐floor gravimeter , 2003 .

[27]  P. Okubo,et al.  Volcanic spreading at Kilauea, 1976–1996 , 1998 .

[28]  T. Árnadóttir,et al.  Motion of Kilauea Volcano during sustained eruption from the Puu Oo and Kupaianaha Vents, 1983–1991 , 1993 .

[29]  P. Segall,et al.  Global positioning system measurements on the island of Hawaii, 1993 through 1996 , 1997 .

[30]  R. Bürgmann,et al.  An increment of volcano collapse: Kinematics of the 1975 Kalapana, Hawaii, earthquake , 2006 .

[31]  Parker,et al.  Submarine measurement of the Newtonian gravitational constant. , 1991, Physical review letters.

[32]  M. Eblé.  Instrumentation, field operations, and data processing for PMEL deep ocean bottom pressure measurements , 1989 .

[33]  M. Bevis,et al.  Slow earthquakes on the flank of Kilauea volcano, Hawai'i , 2005 .

[34]  J. Morgan,et al.  Overthrusting and sediment accretion along Kilauea's mobile south flank, Hawaii: Evidence for volcanic spreading from marine seismic reflection data , 2000 .

[35]  R. Bürgmann,et al.  Shallow normal faulting and block rotation associated with the 1975 Kalapana earthquake , 2001 .

[36]  Marie C. Eble,et al.  Deep-Ocean Bottom Pressure Measurements in the Northeast Pacific , 1991 .

[37]  David C.P. Peacock,et al.  Faulting in the South Flank of Kilauea Volcano, Hawai'i , 2001 .

[38]  P. M. Saunders,et al.  Practical Conversion of Pressure to Depth , 1981 .

[39]  D. Clague,et al.  Role of olivine cumulates in destabilizing the flanks of Hawaiian volcanoes , 1994 .

[40]  Walter H. F. Smith,et al.  New, improved version of generic mapping tools released , 1998 .

[41]  C. Fox.  Five years of ground deformation monitoring on axial seamount using a bottom pressure recorder , 1993 .