Article Geochemistry 3 Volume 11, Number 1 Geophysics 19 January 2010 Geosystems Q01003, doi:10.1029/2009GC002558 G ISSN: 1525-2027 AN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE EARTH SCIENCES Published by AGU and the Geochemical Society Click Here for Full Article Duration, magnitude, and frequency of subaerial volcano deformation events: New results from Latin America using InSAR and a global synthesis T. J. Fournier, M. E. Pritchard, and S. N. Riddick Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Snee Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA (
[email protected]) [1] We combine new observations of volcano deformation in Latin America with more than 100 previous deformation studies in other areas of the world to constrain the frequency, magnitude, and duration of subaerial volcano deformation events. We discuss implications for eruptive hazards from a given deformation event and the optimum repeat interval for proposed InSAR satellite missions. We use L band (23.6 cm wavelength) satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to make the first systematic search for deformation in all volcanic arcs of Latin America (including Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the northern and southern Andes), spanning 2006–2008. We combine L and C band (5.6 cm wavelength) InSAR observations over the southern Andes volcanoes to extend the time series from 2002 to 2008 and assess the capabilities of the different radars: L band gives superior results in highly vegetated areas. Our observations reveal 11 areas of volcano deformation, some of them in areas that were thought to be dormant. There is a lack of observed deformation at several erupting volcanoes, probably due to temporal aliasing.