Latest News

not signed in
Log In

InSite in Volcano Seismicity Simulation.

30InSite seismic processor was used in the monitoring of a pioneering laboratory experiment simulating volcanic seismicity.
October's issue of the leading scientific journal 'Science' includes a research article investigating the physical processes generating seismicity within volcanoes:

Benson, P.M. Vinciguerra, S. Meredith, P.G. and Young, R.P. Laboratory Simulation of Volcano Seismicity. Science, Vol 322, Issue 5899.

The InSite Seismic Processor was used for the processing of full waveforms, location and source mechanism analysis of microseismic events induced during the laboratory deformation and fracture of basalt samples from Mount Etna Volcano in southern Italy. The experiment reproduced volcanic long-period seismicity through the rapid post-failure decompression of the water-filled pore volume and damage zone induced in the basalt sample. The triggered low frequency microseismic events associated with pore fluid decompression located in the damage zone in the fractured sample.

This experiment represents the first simulation and monitoring of seismic signals that precede a volcanic eruption under controlled pressure conditions in a laboratory. The experiment was conducted by an international research team from the University of Toronto (Canada), University College London (UK) and the National Geophysics and Volcano Institute (Italy) at the University of Toronto's Rock Fracture Dynamics Facility.

The on-line version of the article is available at Science magazine website .

< Return to the home page   ::  Contact Us
Applied Seismology Consultants