Global Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Database 1979-1989
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U- S- Department of the Interior U. S. Geological Survey GLOBAL VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARM DATABASE 1979-1989 by John P. Benoit1 '2 and Stephen R. McNutt1 '2 Open-File Report 96-69 This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards (or with the North American Stratigraphic Code). Any use of trade, product, of firm names is for the descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. 1 Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks 903 Koyukuk Dr. P.O. Box 757320 Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7320 2 Alaska Volcano Observatory 1996 CONTENTS DEVELOPMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF THE GLOBAL VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARM DATABASE...................................................................................................^^ INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................A DATABASE STRUCTURE AND D£5c/?/pr/o^...................................................................................................................5 Volcano Table ....................................................................................................................................................6 Earthquake Swarm Table....................................................................................................................................6 Eruption Table ...................................................................................................................................................7 VOLCAT ORGANIZATION AND PARAMETER DESCRIPTION.............................................................................................1 Morphology, Tectonic Framework, Elevation, and Edifice Relief .......................................................................9 Range of Erupted Products............................................................................................................................... 11 SWARMCAT ORGANIZATION AND PARAMETER DESCRIPTION. .................................................................................... 12 Swarm Dates, Durations and Uncertainties ......................................................................................................12 Definition of a Swarm and Swarm Duration...................................................................................................... 13 Swarm Type......................................................................................................................................................13 Event Types...................................................................................................................................................... 14 Quality Grades (QC) ........................................................................................................................................75 Maximum Magnitude, Intensity, and Depth...................................................................................................... 15 Cumulative Energy, Energy Release Rate, and Repose..................................................................................... 16 Earthquake Counts and Magnitude Detection Threshold.......... ........................................................................ 17 Seismograph Information .................................................................................................................................77 Previous Swarms and Other Reported Information ...........................................................................................17 References, Comment and Key Phrase fields ....................................................................................................18 ERUPTCAT ORGANIZATION AND PARAMETER DESCRIPTION...................................................................................... IS Data Sources..........................................................................................................................................^ Erupted Volume, Plume Height, Silica Content, and the VEI ............................................................................22 PRELIMINARY RESULTS..............................................................................................^ SWARM DURATION..........................................................^^^ EARTHQUAKE MAGNITUDE..... .................................................................................................................................25 DATA LIMITATIONS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................26 IMPROVEMENTS AND FUTURE WORK.........................................................................................................................27 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..............................................................................................................................................2S REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................................^ APPENDIX A........................................................................................................................................................... ^ THE GLOBAL VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARM DAT ABASE........................................................... 32 FIGURES FIGURE 1. THE NUMBER OF EVENTS VERSES TIME is SCHEMATICALLY SHOWN FOR THE THREE TYPES OF EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCES......................................................................................................................................................4 FIGURE 2. AN EXAMPLE RECORD FROMTHE GLOBAL VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARM DATABASE.. ........................... 6 FIGURE 3. SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE TEMPORAL RELATION BETWEEN VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARMS AND ERUPTIVE ACnVITY........................................................................................................................................ 14 FIGURE 4. THE MEAN DEPTH OF VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARMS. .......................................................................... 16 FIGURES. HISTOGRAM OF THE DURATIONS OF VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKE SWARMS. ...................................................24 FIGURE 6. COMPARISON OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKE SWARM DURATIONS THAT PRECEDE ERUPTIVE ACTIVITY (TYPE I) AND DURATIONS THAT ARE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTIVE ACTIVITY (TYPE ffl)............... 25 FIGURE 7. COMPARISON OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF MAGNITUDE OF THE LARGEST SHOCK (M,^ WITHIN SWARMS THAT PRECEDE ERUPTIVE ACTIVITY (TYPE I) AND SWARMS THAT ARE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ERUPTIVE ACTIVITY (TYPE m)......................................................._ TABLES TABLE!. REGIONAL ORGANIZATION....................................................................................................................... 7 TABLE 2. LIST OF VOLCANOES IN THE GVESD........................................................................................................ 8 TABLES. VOLCANO MORPHOLOGY....................................................................................................................... 10 TABLE 4. TECTONIC FRAMEWORK.........................................................................................................................10 TABLES. ERUPTED PRODUCTS. ............................................................................................................................. 11 TABLE 6. REPORTING UNCERTAINTIES................................................................................................................... 12 TABLE 7. EVENT TYPES........ ................................................................................................................................ 15 TABLES. OTHER REPORTED OBSERVATIONS......................................................................................................... 18 TABLE9. ERUPTCAT TABLE...............................................................................................................................19 Development and Description of the Global Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Database Introduction Earthquake swarms are pervasive at volcanoes, but have seldom been studied systematically. Most swarms that are described in the literature are those that occurred in association with eruptions; indeed, earthquake swarms are the most reliable method of forecasting eruptions. For the purpose of this report, a swarm is defined as many earthquakes of the same size occurring in a small volume. Swarms are different in these two ways from a mainshock-aftershock sequence or a foreshock-mainshock-aftershock sequence (fig. 1). Swarms are especially common in volcanic areas. MS MAINSHOCK-AFTERSHOCK N FORESHOCK-MAINSHOCK- AFTERSHOCK N SWARM time Figure 1. The number of events (N) per unit time versus time is schematically shown for the three types of earthquake sequences. The mainshock (MS) indicates the sharp increase in rate for the upper two distributions. Because swarms are such a common and important phenomenon, we undertook a systematic and comprehensive study of swarms at volcanoes using modern commercially available database software. We term the result the Global Volcanic Earthquake Swarm Database (GVESD). This report describes the database and how it is structured, and gives preliminary results of a study of swarm durations based on 11 years of data as reported in the Bulletin