Deep long-period earthquakes at Akutan Volcano are more directly related
to magmatic processes than volcano-tectonic earthquakes
Abstract
Both volcano-tectonic (VTs) and deep long-period earthquakes (DLPs) have
been documented at Akutan Volcano, Alaska and may reflect different
active processes. In this study, we perform high-resolution earthquake
detection, classification, and relocation using seismic data from
2005-2017 to investigate their relationship with underlying magmatic
processes. We find that the 2,787 VTs and 787 DLPs are concentrated
above and below the shallow magma reservoir respectively. The DLPs’
low-frequency content is likely a source instead of path effect
considering its uniformity across stations. Both VT and DLP swarms occur
preferentially during inflation episodes with no clear migration.
However, the largest VT swarms occur during non-inflating periods, and
only VT swarms contain repeating events. Therefore, we conclude that the
VTs represent fault rupture triggered by magma/fluid movement or larger
earthquakes, while the DLPs are directly related to unsteady magma
movement through a complex pathway or represent slow fault ruptures
triggered by magma movement.