TREMORLOC - Linking tremor source location with volcanic processes

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Eva Eibl
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572104594

It has been estimated that over half a billion people worldwide live in the proximity to active volcanoes, which poses one of the largest threats to life, industry, and infrastructure. Due to the recent warming of the Earth, ice-covered volcanoes have become an increasing risk due to the range of hazards they can produce from the melting ice and snow. Furthermore, the surface unloading caused by the melting may increase the chance of eruption. With an ever-increasing global economy in the age of climate change, there is a need to improve upon the understanding of volcanic processes and mechanisms that occur at large ice-covered volcanoes. We plan to classify seismic tremor signals during the 2014-2015 Bárðarbunga-Holuhraun eruption in Iceland. Tremor is a sustained seismic signal with no phases or arrival times that can last minutes to months. Tremor in the past has been linked to magma or hydrothermal fluid movement in the subsurface. The problem with tremor is the fact that the signal has no district arrival times, which makes traditional earthquake location methods difficult to use. Tremor signals tend to be weak and can be masked by larger sources of noise occurring at the same time. Here, we propose to use modern cutting-edge separation techniques to extract the tremor signal out of the overall volcanic signal. Afterwards, the location of the tremor will be estimated by using a promising new hybrid non-phase location method. Finally, through the location and timing of each tremor signal, we will (i) link the tremor to differing physical processes during the eruption and (ii) use the tremor locations as a tool to predict the timing of subglacial eruptions, subaerial eruptions, and their precursors during several eruptions. The outcomes of this research will help reduce the errors in characterizing and locating volcanic tremor signals, which in turn could reveal new information into understanding the relationship between tremor and its control/impact on the volcanic system (e.g. eruption timing, effusion rates). Ultimately, the results of this work will provide a template on which new signal demixing and location methods can be shown, and help to add knowledge to the current understanding of volcanic tremor.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Cooperation Partner: Braden Walsh, Ph.D.