Kusatsu-Shirane volcano hosts numerous thermal springs, fumaroles, and the crater lake of Yugama. Hence, it has been a particular study field for hydrothermal systems and phreatic eruptions. On 23 January 2018, a phreatic eruption occurred at the Motoshirane cone of Kusatsu-Shirane, where no considerable volcanic activity had been reported in observational and historical records. To understand the eruption process of this unique event, we analyzed seismic, tilt, and infrasound records. The onset of surface activity accompanied by infrasound signal was preceded by volcanic tremor and inflation of the volcano for ~ 2 min. Tremor signals with a frequency band of 5–20 Hz remarkably coincide with the rapid inflation. We apply an amplitude source location method to seismic signals in the 5–20 Hz band to estimate tremor source locations. Our analysis locates tremor sources at 1 km north of Motoshirane and at a depth of 0.5–1 km from the surface. Inferred source locations correspond to a conductive layer of impermeable cap-rock estimated by magnetotelluric investigations. An upper portion of the seismogenic region suggests hydrothermal activity hosted beneath the cap-rock. Examined seismic signals in the 5–20 Hz band are typically excited by volcano-tectonic events with faulting mechanism. Based on the above characteristics and background, we interpret that excitation of examined volcanic tremor reflects small shear fractures induced by sudden hydrothermal fluid injection to the cap-rock layer. The horizontal distance of 1 km between inferred tremor sources and Motoshirane implies lateral migration of the hydrothermal fluid, although direct evidence is not available. Kusatsu-Shirane has exhibited unrest at the Yugama lake since 2014. However, the inferred tremor source locations do not overlap active seismicity beneath Yugama. Therefore, our result suggests that the 2018 eruption was triggered by hydrothermal fluid injection through a different pathway from that has driven unrest activities at Yugama.

We report on the fluidization dynamics of an attractive gel composed of non-Brownian particles made of fused silica colloids. Extensive rheology coupled to ultrasonic velocimetry allows us to characterize the global stress response together with the local dynamics of the gel during shear startup experiments.In practice, after being rejuvenated by a preshear, the gel is left to age for a time t w before being subjected to a constant shear rate _ g. We investigate in detail the effects of both t w and _ g on the fluidization dynamics and build a detailed state diagram of the gel response to shear startup flows. The gel may display either transient shear banding towards complete fluidization or steady-state shear banding. In the former case, we unravel that the progressive fluidization occurs by successive steps that appear as peaks on the global stress relaxation signal. Flow imaging reveals that the shear band grows until complete fluidization of the material by sudden avalanche-like events which are distributed heterogeneously along the vorticity direction and correlated to large peaks in the slip velocity at the moving wall. These features are robust over a wide range of t w and _ g values, although the very details of the fluidization scenario vary with _ g. Finally, the critical shear rate _ g* that separates steady-state shear-banding from steady-state homogeneous flow depends on the width of the shear cell and exhibits a nonlinear dependence with t w . Our work brings about valuable experimental data on transient flows of attractive dispersions, highlighting the subtle interplay between shear, wall slip and aging whose modeling constitutes a major challenge that has not been met yet.

Volcanic tremor provides clues to magma migration pathways so that tremor source location is expected to be an efficient tool for tracking dynamic behavior of magma in evolution of eruptive activity. However, clear evidence, which connects between temporal variation in volcanic tremor and evolution of eruption style, is still lacking. We have analyzed volcanic tremors occurred during 1986 Izu‐Oshima eruption using recently digitized data. The results present a clear link between eruption styles, waveform variations and source locations of the tremors. Moreover, precursory activity of the tremors that indicates injection of magma below fissures has been clarified 5 days prior to the fissure eruptions. This demonstrates predominance of tremor activity as an adaptive monitoring tool in volcanic eruption.