Accelerating Seafloor Uplift of Submarine Caldera near Sofugan Volcano,
Japan, Resolved by Distant Tsunami Recordings
Abstract
On 8 October 2023 UTC, significant tsunamis were observed around Japan
without any major tsunamigenic earthquake, associated with a series of
14 successive minor earthquakes (mb = 4.5–5.4) near Sofugan in the
Izu-Bonin islands. To examine the cause of this tsunami, we estimated
the horizontal locations of the tsunami source and temporal history of
the seafloor displacement, using the tsunami data recorded by the
ocean-bottom pressure gauges > ~600 km
away. Our results showed the main tsunami source was an uplift located
at a caldera-like bathymetric feature near Sofugan, suggesting the
involvement of caldera activity in the tsunami generation. The total
seafloor uplift was larger than ~3 m, and the uplift
amount of each event gradually increased over time, reflecting an
accelerating occurrence of multiple sudden caldera uplifts within only a
few hours.