Multiple magma sources beneath the Okmok caldera as inferred from local
earthquake tomography
Abstract
Okmok volcano located on the northeastern part of the Umnak Island is
one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Arc. It was initially
built as a large shield volcano, but was strongly destroyed by two
caldera-forming eruptions 12,000 and 2,040 years ago. The post-caldera
eruptions occur mostly along the inner perimeter of the caldera from a
series of distinct cones. Here, we perform seismic tomography to explore
the deep sources of magmatic activity beneath Okmok. We use the local
earthquake data of the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) in the time
period from 2003 to 2017 to build a model with the 3D distributions of
the P and S wave velocities and Vp/Vs ratio. At
depths of more than 10 km, we observe a vertically aligned anomaly of
high Vp/Vs ratio representing a steady conduit likely responsible
for the volcano evolution since its origin. Above this conduit, we
reveal a large anomaly of high Vp/Vs ratio representing the main
magma reservoir providing the material for all recent eruptions in the
caldera. It appears to be connected with another large shallow reservoir
located below the Cone A that was the source of most of Okmok’s
historical eruptions. The most recent eruption in 2008 took place right
above the deep conduit. To reach the surface, the magma for this
eruption passed through the shallow ductile zone, where it was saturated
by silicic components. This interpretation is consistent with the
petrology studies and modeling of ground deformations.