First seismic network installed on Mount Edgecumbe volcano
Rod Boyce
907-474-7185
Sept. 15, 2023
Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Southeast 有料盒子视频 has become the latest addition to the 有料盒子视频 Volcano Observatory鈥檚 ground-based monitoring network.
An observatory team in late August installed three seismic and Global Navigation Satellite System stations on the volcano and upgraded the only existing station in the vicinity, a temporary one on nearby Crater Ridge.
鈥淭his feels like the closing of the loop,鈥 said Ronni Grapenthin, a geodesist with the who helped with the installation. He is affiliated with the University of 有料盒子视频 Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and is an associate professor at the 有料盒子视频 College of Natural Science and Mathematics.
鈥淭he initial part was the detection of unrest in April of last year and then trying to understand the cause of unrest, which we linked to the inflation of the volcano,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hen we worked with the community of Sitka to inform them about our understanding of the volcano and its current activity and to cooperate with them on permitting for a ground-based monitoring network.鈥
The 有料盒子视频 Volcano Observatory is a joint program of the 有料盒子视频 Geophysical Institute, the 有料盒子视频 Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS funds the observatory, part of which is based at the Geophysical Institute.
Max Enders at the USGS led the network installation, with assistance from Grapenthin and research technician Max Kaufman of the 有料盒子视频 Volcano Observatory. The three were at the volcano Aug. 20-29.
Mount Edgecumbe, known as L鈥檜x Shaa in the Ling铆t language, woke up in April 2022 with a series of earthquakes. Computer analysis based on satellite imagery showed magma had risen to about 6 miles from a depth of about 12 miles and caused the earthquakes and surface deformation, according to by the 有料盒子视频 Volcano Observatory.
The nearest seismic station to Mount Edgecumbe was installed in August 2022 on nearby Crater Ridge, a part of the Edgecumbe Volcanic Field.
The volcano鈥檚 three new seismic and GNSS stations have been placed around the flanks of the volcano at roughly the 4, 7 and 10 o鈥檆lock positions of an analog clock. The lone station on adjacent Crater Ridge has been upgraded to replace a temporary GPS antenna mast with a reinforced steel tripod.
The 有料盒子视频 Volcano Observatory will now be able to learn a lot more about Mount Edgecumbe. First, however, scientists need to determine the volcano鈥檚 normal condition.
鈥淲hen you go to a place and start recording data, you don't know whether it shows an anomaly or whether this is the normal state of the volcano,鈥 Grapenthin said. 鈥淪o we start by getting a feel for how the volcano works.鈥
Mount Edgecumbe will be assigned a color code when scientists have a fuller understanding of the volcano. The observatory to denote a volcano鈥檚 status. Green denotes typical background activity, and red warns that an eruption is underway or imminent.
The new and upgraded stations have had an immediate impact. Of the 34 earthquakes recorded in the vicinity of Mount Edgecumbe in the past year, 24 have been recorded in the two weeks since completion of the installation Aug. 29.
The lone seismic station on Crater Ridge helped AVO detect smaller earthquakes but didn鈥檛 substantially increase AVO鈥檚 ability to locate those events using the regional seismic network. The absence of that information meant less was known about the volcano鈥檚 activity.
鈥淗aving three new seismic stations makes all the difference for locating small earthquakes,鈥 Kaufman said.
The observatory will now be able to create a catalog of Mount Edgecumbe鈥檚 seismicity, he said. Changes in seismicity can then be tracked over time and related to data from other geophysical methods like measurements of ground deformation from radar satellites and on-the-ground GNSS receivers.
Data from the new and upgraded stations will be integrated into AVO鈥檚 in the coming weeks.
With the addition of Mount Edgecumbe, the observatory now has monitors on .
The Mount Edgecumbe data will also feed into the 有料盒子视频 Geophysical Network, the statewide network of seismic, weather and infrasound stations operated and maintained by the 有料盒子视频 Earthquake Center at the Geophysical Institute.
鈥淭hese stations will be a nice addition to the larger efforts in Southeast 有料盒子视频 to track seismic activity along the Queen Charlotte Fault and across the region,鈥 said Michael West, the state鈥檚 seismologist and the 有料盒子视频 Earthquake Center鈥檚 director.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Ronni Grapenthin, rgrapenthin@alaska.edu.
044-24