Spatial extent of a hydrothermal system at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, determined from array analyses of shallow long-period seismicity: 2. Results

Abstract

Array data from a seismic experiment carried out at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, in February 1997, are analyzed by the frequency-slowness method. The slowness vectors are determined at each of three small-aperture seismic antennas for the first arrivals of 1129 long-period (LP) events and 147 samples of volcanic tremor. The source locations are determined by using a probabilistic method which compares the event azimuths and slownesses with a slowness vector model. The results show that all the LP seismicity, including both discrete LP events and tremor, was generated in the same source region along the east flank of the Halemaumau pit crater, demonstrating the strong relation that exists between the two types of activities. The dimensions of the source region are approximately 0.6×1.0×0.5 km. For LP events we are able to resolve at least three different clusters of events. The most active cluster is centered ∼200 m northeast of Halemaumau at depths shallower than 200 m beneath the caldera floor. A second cluster is located beneath the northeast quadrant of Halemaumau at a depth of ∼400 m. The third cluster is <200 m deep and extends southeastward from the northeast quadrant of Halemaumau. Only one source zone is resolved for tremor. This zone is coincident with the most active source zone of LP events, northeast of Halemaumau. The location, depth, and size of the source region suggest a hydrothermal origin for all the analyzed LP seismicity.