Continuing deflation by fumaroles at Kuju Volcano, Japan

Abstract

A phreatic eruption occurred at Kuju Volcano in October 1995. We deployed an EDM network around the active craters of the volcano just after the eruption. Slope distances of the survey lines in the northern network have tended to contract, whereas those in the southern one extended. The maximum contraction observed in the northern network was 70 cm over 6 years. A spherical volume decrease just beneath a fumarolic area called Iwoyama 700 m north of the new craters is a plausible model for these changes in slope distances. A noteworthy feature is that over 6 years after the phreatic eruption ended, the deflation rate is still approximately linear. We also estimated the thermal energy discharge by fumaroles in the new craters, which proved to be well correlated with the observed deflation rate. It is strongly suggested that deflation of a geothermal reservoir, not any magmatic effect, causes the ground deformation around Iwoyama.