Investigating the potential influence of tectonic earthquakes on active volcanoes of Vanuatu

Abstract

It is intuitive to think that an earthquake near a volcano could disrupt its equilibrium and potentially trigger an eruption. But this cause-and-effect link is far from obvious for active volcanoes with an unknown internal stress state and the complexity of its magma-hydrothermal processes. This phenomenon is clearer in continental-oceanic subduction zones where volcanoes generally have closed-vent systems, differentiated high-viscosity magma, and active hydrothermal systems. This phenomenon is less well known in oceanic-oceanic subduction zones, where volcanoes often have open-vent systems, low-viscosity mafic magma, and hypothetic hydrothermal systems. The Vanuatu oceanic-oceanic subduction is an ideal zone to perform such study due to a high-seismic rate and volcanoes with different characteristics. The Vanuatu volcanoes display both open- and closed-vent systems, low and relatively high viscosity magma that enhance different types of volcanic activities (such as lava lakes, strombolian eruptions, high-eruptive columns, phreatic activity), and potential active hydrothermal systems. We compiled and identified sixty-nine cases of earthquakes potentially triggering volcanic activities on Vanuatu volcanoes from 1913 to 2018. Our findings indicate that the triggered volcanic responses occur co-seismically or shortly (at most 2–3 months later) after the earthquake, that the activated volcanoes are mainly located at near-field distances of the potentially triggering earthquake, implying a strong influence of static stress changes. Using the value of the seismic density energy, we suggest that the mechanism of the Vanuatu volcanic responses is due to changes of the permeability within active hydrothermal systems at Lopevi and Ambrym volcanoes in addition to the well-established ones, at Ambae, Garet, and Yasur volcanoes.