Seismicity and Magmatic System of the Changbaishan Intraplate Volcano in East Asia

Abstract

A high-precision earthquake catalog is made from continuous waveform data recorded at 360 portable seismographs deployed for one month in the Changbaishan-Tianchi volcanic area based on an automatic earthquake detection and location workflow. Then we investigate detailed 3-D structures of P and S wave velocities (Vp and Vs) and Vp/Vs ratio of the crust beneath the study region. Our results reveal a high-Vp/Vs zone accompanied with active volcanic earthquakes beneath the Tianchi caldera at ∼5 km depth, which may reflect a magma chamber. The intense seismic activities within 2 km depth beneath the Tianchi caldera from 2002 to 2005 occurred directly above the magma chamber revealed by this study, which could be related to upward migration of high-pressure volatiles originating from the magma chamber. A potential middle-crustal magma chamber might provide continuous magmatic materials feeding the upper-crust magma chamber and lead to ruptures of surrounding rocks, resulting in two swarms of volcanic seismicity during the observation period. We deem that the diverse eruption styles of the Changbaishan volcano are closely associated with the multilevel structure of magma chambers in the upper and middle crust.