Groundwater flow and volcanic unrest

Abstract

Hydrology around active volcanoes is strongly controlled by the interaction between groundwater, and the fluids, dissolved elements and heat associated with magmatic intrusion. The chemical and mechanical processes associated with magmatic unrest can result in observable changes in the hydrothermal system. Consequently, observations of chemical and physical hydrothermal variations may provide insights into the state of volcanic activity. Additionally, the interaction between hydrological and volcanic systems leads to the presence of high-temperature, pressurised, and often acidic fluids, which add to, and intensify, the volcanic hazard. In the following chapter we present the major components of, and controls on, magmatic hydrothermal systems focusing on the mutual perturbation between the groundwater flow system and the volcanic system. We explore how these conditions can be modified by volcanic unrest and we identify feedbacks between dynamic hydrothermal behaviour and on-going unrest. The interaction between these systems, and therefore the associated monitoring signals, are the result of complex groundwater-volcano coupling within multi-phase flow system in evolving lithologies. Nonetheless, detailed monitoring of hydrothermal and hydrological behaviour can provide insights into unrest and the evolution of hazards at restless volcanoes.