New evidence for the reawakening of Teide volcano

Abstract

Geophysical signals accompanying the reactivation of a volcano after a period of quiescence must be evaluated as potential precursors to impending eruption. Here we report on the reactivation of the central volcanic complex of Tenerife, Spain, in spring 2004 and present gravity change maps constructed by time‐lapse microgravity measurements taken between May 2004 and July 2005. The gravity changes indicate that the recent reactivation after almost a century of inactivity was accompanied by a sub‐surface mass addition, yet we did not detect widespread surface deformation. We find that the causative source was evolving in space and time and infer fluid migration at depth as the most likely cause for mass increase. Our results demonstrate that, even in the absence of previous baseline data and ground deformation, microgravity measurements early in developing crises provide crucial insight into the dynamic changes beneath a volcano.

An Overview of Geodetic Volcano Research in the Canary Islands

“…1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Anomalous low-magnitude seismicity was recorded in and around This reactivation produced surface gravity changes (Gottsmann et al, 2006) indicating that the activity was accompanied by a sub-surface mass addition, although no widespread deformation was detected initially. While magma recharge at depth into the northwestern rift zone of Tenerife is likely to have triggered the reawakening of the central volcanic complex, the cause of the 14-month perturbation of the gravity field is most probably not related to magma …”

“…Some deformation at surface has been detected, associated to this reactivation, using GNSS (see Figure 8) and InSAR (see Figure 10) observations and described in different works (González et al, 2005;Prieto et al, 2005;Fernández et al, 2006Fernández et al, , 2007Samsonov et al, 2008;Fernández et al, 2009;González et al, 2010a;Tizzani et al, 2010 ENVISAT data was performed with GAMMA software. All possible combinations were used to create interferograms and then stacking was used to increase signal-to-noise ratio.…”

“…Earth observation from space, gravimetry,…) have allowed both ground deformation and gravity variations that occur before, during and after events volcanic to be measured with a precision, spatial and temporal coverage unimaginable a few decades ago (Fernández et al, 1999;Sigurdsson et al 2000;Gottsmann et al, 2006;Dzurisin, 2007;Battaglia et al, 2008, Crossley et al, 2013. These innovative observational techniques have entailed developing new methods of data processing and interpretation (theoretical models and inversion techniques), allowing rigorous and objective information to be obtained from these new observations.…”

Volcanic signatures in time gravity variations during the volcanic unrest on El Hierro (Canary Islands)

“…Gravity measurements are usually taken on active volcanoes to monitor their activity, identify the precursory signals of new eruptions, and constrain the nature of unrest [Rymer and Williams-Jones, 2000;Furuya et al, 2003;Gottsmann et al, 2006;Crescentini and Amoruso, 2007;Bonafede and Ferrari, 2009]. Gravity variations caused by volcanic sources can range from one to several hundred μGal (1 μGal = 10 À8 m s À2 ) and may occur at any time during phases of volcanic activity [Bonvalot et al, 1998;Greco et al, 2008].…”

Gravity‐driven deformation of Tenerife measured by InSAR time series analysis

“…This seismic activity [Almendros et al, 2007] produced surface gravity changes, displacements and geochemical signatures [Gottsmann et al, 2006[Gottsmann et al, , 2008. In this study we investigate ground deformation affecting Tenerife Island by analyzing Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) deformation time series and GPS measurements.…”