Intermediate-Term Declines in Seismicity at Mt. Wrangell and Mt. Veniaminof Volcanoes, Alaska, Following the November 3, 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake.

John J. Sánchez (1) and Stephen R. McNutt (1)
(1) Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Sumitted to BSSA.

The Mw 7.9 Denali earthquake ruptured segments of the Susitna Glacier, Denali, and Totschunda faults in interior Alaska providing a unique opportunity to look for intermediate-term (weeks to months) responses of active volcanoes to shaking from a large earthquake. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitors 24 volcanoes with seismograph networks. We examined one station per volcano, and digitally filtered data for the period four weeks before to four weeks after the mainshock were then plotted at a standard scale. Mt. Wrangell, the closest volcano to the epicenter (247 km), had a background rate of about 15 events/day. For the following 30 days, however, its seismicity rate dropped by 50%. Mt. Veniaminof (1055 km from the epicenter) had a rate of 10 seismic events/day suffered a drop in seismicity by 50% after the maishock; this may have lasted for 15 days. The seismicity at both volcanoes is dominated by low-frequency seismic events. With the exception of Martin and Novarupta volcanoes, the other 20 volcanoes showed no changes in seismicity attributable to the Denali earthquake. We conclude that the changes in seismicity observed are real and related to the Denali earthquake. These seismicity drops are in strong contrast to cases of short-term triggered seismicity increases observed at volcanic systems such as Martin-Novarupta, Mt. Rainier, Yellowstone, Mammoth Mt., and The Geysers, Coso and Cerro Prieto (Mexico) geothermal fields. This suggests that fundamentally different mechanisms may be acting to modify seismicity at volcanoes.