Identifying Successive Eruption of Guntur Volcanic Complex Using Magnetic Susceptibility and Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) Data

Abstract

Identifying distribution and stratigraphic of volcanic products are important not only for mitigating volcanic hazards, but also to know the characteristics of the successive eruptions. Guntur volcanic complex located in Garut, West Java, Indonesia was selected as study area because of the last eruption took place in 1847 and the volcanic activity has been dormant since then, however its seismicity is still active. During the period of July to October 2009, the hypocentre distribution of volcano tectonic earthquakes is mostly located at western flank of the volcano, beneath Guntur - Gandapura craters at the depth of less than 5 km. This study is aimed to identify distribution and succession of volcanic products based on their magnetic properties and backscattering signal of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data. The polarimetric decomposition method was used to identify the distribution of the volcanic products based on their scattering characteristics. Then, the field measurement using SM-30 magnetic susceptibility meter was performed to confirm the units of volcanic products and interpret their successions. According to the polarimetric decomposition method, we could identify fifteen successive eruptions formed Guntur Volcano Complex and termed as Khuluk and Gumuk in Indonesian standard. The successions were produced Gumuk Windu, Gumuk Malang, Gumuk Pulus, Gumuk Putrri, Khuluk Meungpeuk, Gumuk Cakra, Gumuk Gandapura, Gumuk Putri, Gumuk Gajah, Gumuk Batususun, Khuluk Pasirlaku, Gumuk Agung, Gumuk Picung, Gumuk Pasirmalang, Gumuk Masigit, Khuluk Kabuyutan and Khuluk Guntur. The magnetic susceptibility confirmed that the variations of magnetic susceptibility of rocks at each gumuk agreed with their stratigraphy.