Intermediate-Term Declines in Seismicity at Two Volcanoes in Alaska Following the Mw7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake.

Stephen R. McNutt (1) John J. Sánchez (1), Seth C. Moran (2), and John A. Power (2)
(1) Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
(2) USGS-Alaska Volcano Observatory, Anchorage.

Eos Trans. AGU, 83(47), Fall Meet., Supl., Abstract S72F-1353

The Mw7.9 Denali Fault earthquake provided an opportunity to look for intermediate-term (days to weeks) responses of Alaskan volcanoes to shaking from a large regional earthquake. The Alaska Volcano Observatory monitors 24 volcanoes with seismic networks. We examined one station for each volcano, generally the closest (typically 5 km from the vent) unless noise, site response, or other factors made the data unusable. Data were digitally bandpass filtered between 0.8 and 5 Hz to reduce noise from microseisms and wind. Data for the period three days before to three days after the Mw7.9 earthquake were then plotted at a standard scale used for AVO routine monitoring. Shishaldin volcano, which has a background rate of several hundred seismic events per day on station SSLS, showed no change from before to after the earthquake. Veniaminof volcano, which has had recent mild eruptions and a rate of several dozen seismic events per day on station VNNF, suffered a drop in seismicity at the time of the earthquake by a factor of 2.5; this lasted for 15 days. We tested this result using a different station, VNSS, and a different method of counting (non-filtered data on helicorder records) and found the same result. We infer that Veniaminof's activity was modified by the Mw7.9 earthquake. Wrangell, the closest volcano, had a background rate of about 10 events per day. Data from station WANC could not be measured for 8 days after the Mw7.9 earthquake because the large number of aftershocks precluded identification of local seismicity. For the following eight days, however, its seismicity rate was 30 percent lower than before. While subtle, we infer that this may be related to the earthquake. It is known that Wrangell increased its heat output after the Mw9.2 Alaska earthquake of 1964 and again after the Ms7.1 St. Elias earthquake of 1979. The other 21 volcanoes showed no changes in seismicity from 3 days before to 3 days after the Mw7.9 event. We conclude that intermediate-term seismicity decreases occurred at two Alaskan volcanoes, in strong contrast to cases of triggered seismicity increases observed at volcanic systems such as Katmai, Mount Rainier, Mammoth Mountain, and Yellowstone. This suggests that fundamentally different mechanisms may be acting to modify or trigger seismicity at volcanoes.