Abstract
Valles Caldera was formed by large rhyolitic eruptions at
~1.6 and 1.23 Ma and it hosts post-caldera rhyolitic
deposits as young as ~70 ka, but the contemporary state
of the magmatic system is unclear. Local seismicity beneath Valles
Caldera is rare and shear-velocity (Vs) structure has not been
previously imaged. Here, we present the first local Vs tomography
beneath Valles Caldera using ambient noise Rayleigh dispersion from a
~71 km transect of nodal seismographs with mean spacing
of ~750 m. An ~6 km wide low-Vs anomaly
(Vs<2.1 km/s) is located at ~3-10 km depth
within the 1.23 Ma caldera’s ring fracture. Assuming magma in textural
equilibrium, the new tomography suggests that melt fractions up to
~17-22% may be present within the upper crustal depth
range where previously erupted rhyolites were stored.