physical volcanology and structural development of sierra negra volcano isabela island galapagos archipelago sierra negra is the most voluminous of the western galapagos shields and exhibits many unusual morphologic features extensive lower flank apron steep upper flanks a broad summit plateau a large complex caldera ubiquitous occurrence of aa and radial and circumferential fissures a field based investigation of the volcano was conducted in order to establish the distribution and characteristics of eruptive zones and associated flow fields and to construct a volcano wide surface flow stratigraphy geochronologic data were used to determine the age of the units and combined with flow volume calculations to estimate both the historic and total volcano eruption rates ninety one kilometers of radial and circumferential fissures were mapped and grouped into four eruptive zones which form a volcano wide east northeast trending rift system that deflects around the caldera the eruptive zones are restricted spatially and temporally and document long term changes in the volcano s development long fluid lava flows are broadly distributed among five ages resulting in a subdued flank profile by the development of an extensive lower flank apron around the volcano ten historical eruptions have occurred with eruption rates of 44 to 248 m3 s and an average growth rate of 12 106 m3 yr age determinations of lava flows by 14c and cosmogenic 3he range from 400 to 6900 yr the total volcano growth rate is estimated to be 1 106 m3 yr these results confirm the young age of sierra negra lavas and the validity of the relative ages determined from stratigraphic study in total the volcano has undergone over 90 resurfacing in the past 4500 yr the summit of sierra negra is entirely occupied by a shallow elliptical 7 10 km caldera near vertical ring faults circumscribe the summit and expose 100 to 140 m of lava flows subparallel sets of caldera growth faults cut the western and southern caldera walls and are not associated with eruptive activity the inclination of remnant magnetism and the attitudes of the flows exposed in the caldera walls indicate that the lavas have not been appreciably deformed nor have they been intruded by dikes or sills the caldera interior is structurally complex and contains a 14 km long c shaped sinuous ridge composed of a complex set of normally faulted blocks with inward dipping 20 60 flow tops the sinuous ridge is interpreted to have formed gradually as the caldera floor pivoted in a trap door fashion jammed its western edge and then fractured in several places concomitant with the long term vertical and lateral growth of the volcano a regional tectonic stress field superimposed upon the galapagos platform appears to have exerted primary control on the location of sierra negra including the early development of the east northeast rift system intervolcano stresses have controlled the distribution of eruptive zones only where significant subaerial overlap of adjacent volcanoes occurs large volume high discharge rate eruptions from fissures along the east northeast rift system are responsible for the development of an extensive coastal apron flow stacking at mid flank elevations and generally subdued slopes in comparison to other western galapagos volcanoes the summit caldera and underlying magma chamber are subordinate in influencing the distribution of lower flank stress but dominate the development of the summit stress field and orientation of eruptive fissures the absence of summit deformation together with the ubiquitous occurrence of short stubby summit flows indicates that the steep upper flanks are constructional in origin

intrusion triggering of the 2010 eyjafjallajokull explosive eruption the ash cloud that brought chaos to european air traffic in april this year was the result of emissions from an icelandic volcano that had been intermittently active for about 18 years a combination of detailed space based geodetic measurements and seismic monitoring of the eyjafjallajkull volcano in the run up to the ash producing explosive summit eruption reveals an unusual deformation pattern that may be attributed to its off rift setting with relatively cool subsurface structure and limited magma at shallow depth as to the predictability of such a dramatic reawakening the immediate precursors to the initial eruption of the volcano in 2010 were subtle and difficult to detect but the clear signs of volcanic unrest during the weeks months and years preceding it may provide better clues to the catastrophic explosion

flexural stresses beneath hawaii implications for the october 15 2006 earthquakes and magma ascent 1 on october 15 2006 two large earthquakes rocked the northwest coast of the island of hawaii six minutes apart the kiholo bay and mahukona events with magnitudes mw 6 7 and 6 0 respectively their close proximity in space and time suggests a common origin but sharp contrasts in mechanism and depth present an unusual fault aftershock relationship here i account for the october 15th earthquakes as the divergent outcomes of a single process downward flexing of the lithosphere in response to loading by hawaiian volcanoes viscoelastic finite element models of lithospheric flexure reveal that a strong stiffness contrast between crustal and mantle materials produces peak upper lithosphere stresses at the top of the stiffer mantle high compression at the mantle top explains the tendency to trap magmas near the base of the crust the underplating observed seismically at older hawaiian volcanoes these phenomena produce peak stress regions at depths consistent with that of the unexpectedly deep mahukona event

widespread uplift and trapdoor faulting on galapagos volcanoes observed with radar interferometry volcanic uplift caused by the accumulation of magma in subsurface reservoirs is a common precursor to eruptions1 2 but for some volcanoes uplift of metres or more has not yet led to an eruption3 here we present displacement maps of volcanoes in the galapagos islands constructed using satellite radar interferometry that might help explain this dichotomy we show that all but one of the seven volcanoes on the islands of isabela and fernandina deformed during 1992 99 cerro azul and fernandina erupted4 5 6 during the observation period and show evidence of inflation co eruptive deflation and shallow dyke intrusion in contrast the largest volcano sierra negra has not erupted yet exhibits spatially and temporally variable deformation with a maximum uplift of 2 7 m between 1992 and 1999 which can be modelled by a shallow inflating sill inflation during 1997 98 however was accompanied by trapdoor faulting on a steeply dipping fracture system within the caldera repeated trapdoor faulting over geological time has formed an arcuate intra caldera ridge within sierra negra and may have acted to relax stresses above the magma chamber inhibiting summit eruptions similar processes may help explain large uplift unaccompanied by eruptive activity at other volcanoes

the may 2005 eruption of fernandina volcano galapagos the first circumferential dike intrusion observed by gps and insar the may 2005 eruption of fernandina volcano galapagos occurred along circumferential fissures parallel to the caldera rim and fed lava flows down the steep southwestern slope of the volcano for several weeks this was the first circumferential dike intrusion ever observed by both insar and gps measurements and thus provides an opportunity to determine the subsurface geometry of these enigmatic structures that are common on galapagos volcanoes but are rare elsewhere pre and post eruption ground deformation between 2002 and 2006 can be modeled by the inflation of two separate magma reservoirs beneath the caldera a shallow sill at 1 km depth and a deeper point source at 5 km depth and we infer that this system also existed at the time of the 2005 eruption the co eruption deformation is dominated by uplift near the 2005 eruptive fissures superimposed on a broad subsidence centered on the caldera modeling of the co eruption deformation was performed by including various combinations of planar dislocations to simulate the 2005 circumferential dike intrusion we found that a single planar dike could not match both the insar and gps data our best fit model includes three planar dikes connected along hinge lines to simulate a curved concave shell that is steeply dipping 45 60 toward the caldera at the surface and more gently dipping 12 14 at depth where it connects to the horizontal sub caldera sill the shallow sill is underlain by the deep point source the geometry of this modeled magmatic system is consistent with the petrology of fernandina lavas which suggest that circumferential eruptions tap the shallowest parts of the system whereas radial eruptions are fed from deeper levels the recent history of eruptions at fernandina is also consistent with the idea that circumferential and radial intrusions are sometimes in a stress feedback relationship and alternate in time with one another

interferogram formation in the presence of complex and large deformation 1 sierra negra volcano in isabela island galapagos erupted from october 22 to october 30 in 2005 during the 8 days of eruption the center of sierra negra s caldera subsided about 5 4 meters three hours prior to the onset of the eruption an earthquake mw 5 4 occurred near the caldera because of the large and complex phase gradient due to the huge subsidence and the earthquake it is difficult to form an interferogram inside the caldera that spans the eruption the deformation is so large and spatially variable that the approximations used in existing insar software roi roi pac doris gamma cannot properly coregister sar image pairs spanning the eruption we have developed here a two step algorithm that can form intra caldera interferograms from these data the first step involves a rubber sheeting sar image coregistration in the second step we use range offset estimates to mitigate the steep phase gradient using this new algorithm we retrieve an interferogram with the best coverage to date inside the caldera of sierra negra

plume ridge interaction lithospheric stresses and the origin of near ridge volcanic lineaments 1 in many hot spot ridge systems formation of off axis volcanic chains or lineaments occurs between the hot spot centers and nearby mid ocean ridges in some cases such as galapagos kerguelen and possibly the mid pac mountains and tristan these lineaments appear to meet in a focus zone near the hot spot and fan outward in the direction of the ridge axis the origins of these lineaments are not well known and do not easily fit into typical conceptual models of ridge or hot spot volcanism it has been proposed for the galapagos region that such lineaments are caused by channeling of hot asthenosphere from off axis mantle plumes toward mid ocean ridges where enhanced volcanism initiates island formation morgan 1978 alternatively other workers suggest that these lineaments are controlled by patterns of stress in the lithosphere we examine this latter hypothesis by considering the effects of buoyant uplift and asthenospheric shear on the base of the lithosphere induced by an expanding mantle plume using thin plate theory we calculate the two dimensional plan view pattern of depth integrated stresses in a plate of varying thickness both a straight continuous ridge and a ridge transform ridge system are simulated by a displacement discontinuity boundary element model ridge and transform segments have imposed normal and zero shear tractions and we test different idealized tectonic or far field stress conditions assuming that volcanism is promoted by lithospheric tension and aligns along lineaments parallel to trajectories of least tensile stress calculations reproduce the rough fan shaped pattern of lineaments between the galapagos archipelago and the galapagos spreading center the focus of the fan shape is over the plume center when it interacts with a straight ridge but the fan focus appears closer to a segmented ridge offset by a transform fault if the ridge segments are more tensile than the far field stress this condition provides a plausible explanation for the apparent focus at the galapagos north of the hot spot center the width of the fan pattern along the ridge axis is predicted to increase as the plume ridge separation increases and as the far field stress becomes more tensile parallel to the ridge the observed width along the galapagos spreading center is consistent with a nearly isotropic remote stress models predict the lithospheric tension caused by plumes to promote lineament formation on only young lithosphere in support of this prediction a compilation of data from 23 hot spots shows that lineament formation is common near hot spots with plume ridge separations of 1250 km or on lithosphere of 25 ma but not on older lithosphere

submarine fernandina magmatism at the leading edge of the galapagos hot spot new multibeam and side scan sonar surveys of fernandina volcano and the geochemistry of lavas provide clues to the structural and magmatic development of galapagos volcanoes submarine fernandina has three well developed rift zones whereas the subaerial edifice has circumferential fissures associated with a large summit caldera and diffuse radial fissures on the lower slopes rift zone development is controlled by changes in deviatoric stresses with increasing distance from the caldera large lava flows are present on the gently sloping and deep seafloor west of fernandina fernandina s submarine lavas are petrographically more diverse than the subaerial suite and include picrites most submarine glasses are similar in composition to aphyric subaerially erupted lavas however these rocks are termed the normal series and are believed to result from cooling and crystallization in the subcaldera magma system which buffers the magmas both thermally and chemically these normal series magmas are extruded laterally through the flanks of the volcano where they scavenge and disaggregate olivine gabbro mush to produce picritic lavas a suite of lavas recovered from the terminus of the sw submarine rift and terraces to the south comprises evolved basalts and icelandites with mgo 3 1 to 5 0 wt this evolved series is believed to form by fractional crystallization at 3 to 5 kb involving extensive crystallization of clinopyroxene and titanomagnetite in addition to plagioclase high k lavas were recovered from the southwest rift and are attributed to hybridization between normal series basalt and evolved series magma the geochemical and structural findings are used to develop an evolutionary model for the construction of the galapagos platform and better understand the petrogenesis of the erupted lavas the earliest stage is represented by the deep water lava flows which over time construct a broad submarine platform the deep water lavas originate from the subcaldera plumbing system of the adjacent volcano after construction of the platform eruptions focus to a point source building an island with rift zones extending away from the adjacent buttressing volcanoes most rift zone magmas intrude laterally from the subcaldera magma chamber although a few evolve by crystallization in the upper mantle and deep crust

petrography of thoriferous hydrocarbon nodules in sandstones and their significance for petroleum exploration nodules of thorium rich hydrocarbon are recorded in sandstone sequences from several basins the hydrocarbon nodules contain mineral inclusions particularly of thorite or monazite there is evidence both for accretion of hydrocarbons around detrital heavy mineral grains and for epigenetic growth by interaction of hydrocarbons with thorium bearing fluids both mechanisms depend upon the precipitation of solid hydrocarbons induced by irradiation from thorium the nodules exhibit aggressive replacement of other grains a characteristic of radioanomalous hydrocarbons the occurrence of the nodules is dependent upon an appropriate plutonic source for the thorium but given this constraint they are important evidence for hydrocarbon migration pathways

landslides at the south end of kluane lake yukon territory landslides are unusually varied and abundant in the kluane ranges near the south end of kluane lake yukon territory selected landslides were investigated to determine the likelihood and probable character of future mass movements in this area and to gain some understanding of similar but unstudied features elsewhere in the st elias mountains landslides in the study area include slumps and related complex landslides rockfalls rockslides rockfall avalanches and debris flows the youngest and most spectacular of the large catastrophic landslides is the sheep mountain rockfall avalanche 5 10 106 m3 which formed as a result of two separate failures between 500 and 1950 radiocarbon years ago much of the low mountain slope southwest of this landslide to near the mouth of slims river is covered by thick blocky rubble deposited during one or more older catastrophic slope failures both the sheep mountain landslide and the set of older slope failures to the southwest apparently occurred when kluane la

crustal structure beneath the galapagos archipelago from ambient noise tomography and its implications for plume lithosphere interactions 1 to constrain the seismic velocity structure of the crust beneath the galapagos archipelago we conducted a tomographic study using high frequency rayleigh waves obtained from cross correlations of ambient noise we analyzed waves with periods between 5 and 8 5 s sensitive to shear wave velocity vs structure between about 3 and 10 km depth after accounting for the effect of water depth crustal velocities are up to 25 lower than those of very young crust at the east pacific rise and are comparable to those of hawaii we attribute the lower than normal velocities to the combined effect of heating and the presence of melt in the crust above the galapagos plume as well as the construction of a highly porous volcanic platform emplaced atop preexisting oceanic crust on average vs between 3 and 10 km depth beneath the western archipelago is up to 15 lower than beneath the eastern archipelago we attribute the west to east velocity increase to a decrease in porosity of the volcanic platform and to cooling of the crust after its passage above the galapagos plume the results of this study in combination with previous work indicate that many of the unusual aspects of the galapagos archipelago are the result of variations in the thickness and internal structure of the chemical and thermal lithospheres our findings indicate that observed variations in the flexural response to loading observed in the galapagos cannot be explained by the current thermal state of the lithosphere instead the flexural response likely represents varying elastic strength at the time of loading we also propose that the northwest and northeast trending alignments of volcanic centers found throughout the archipelago the darwinian lineations may be associated with preexisting zones of weakness in the lithosphere formed during earlier episodes of ridge jumping and ridge propagation that were later reactivated by stresses generated by plume lithosphere interactions

using numerical modeling to explore the origin of intrusion patterns on fernandina volcano galapagos islands ecuador 1 using parameterized finite element models we investigate the emplacement of both radial and circumferential intrusions in the configuration observed at fernandina volcano in the galapagos islands when situated within the edifice at depths consistent with petrological and surface displacement data inflation of a mildly oblate magma reservoir to the point of rupture can initiate either radial or circumferential intrusions in response to minor volcanologically plausible variations in reservoir geometry i e aspect ratio in addition more oblate reservoirs inject lateral sills into an inflation derived stress field consistent with rotation about their propagation axis to form gently dipping radial dikes a mode of behavior recently inferred from insar data at fernandina all three styles of intrusion occur in near surface configurations consistent with field observations

lithospheric structure and compensation mechanisms of the galapagos archipelago volcanic islands of the galapagos archipelago are the most recent subaerial expression of the galapagos hotspot these islands and numerous seamounts are constructed mainly upon a broad volcanic platform that overlies very young 10 m y oceanic lithosphere just south of the active galapagos spreading center the 91 w fracture zone crosses the platform and creates an estimated 5 m y age discontinuity in the lithosphere major tectonic features of the galapagos include an unusually broad distribution of volcanic centers pronounced structural trends such as the nw se wolf darwin lineament wdl and a steep escarpment along the western and southern margins of the archipelago we use shipboard gravity and bathymetry data along with geosat geoid data to explain the tectonic and structural evolution of the galapagos region we model the gravity anomalies using a variety of compensation models including airy isostasy continuous elastic flexure of the lithosphere and an elastic plate with embedded weaknesses and we infer significant lithospheric strength variations across the archipelago the outboard parts of the southern and western escarpment are flexurally supported with an effective elastic thickness of 12 km this area includes the large shield volcanoes of fenandina and isabela islands where the lithosphere regionally supports these volcanic loads the central platform is weaker with an elastic thickness of 6 km or less and close to airy isostasy the greatest depths to the moho are located beneath eastern isabela island and the central platform thinner lithosphere in this region may account for the broad distribution of volcanoes the extended period of eruption of the central volcanoes and their reduced size the transition from strong to weak lithosphere along the southern escarpment appears to be abrupt within the resolution of our models and can be best represented by a free end or faultlike discontinuity also modeling the wdl as a lithospheric fault increases the match to the observed gravity anomalies the primary feature is the weak central platform whose existence is a logical convergence of several factors the 91 w transform age offset the possible increase in age of the lithosphere along the southern part of the platform due to ridge jumping and the formation of the central platform at a spreading ridge

space geodetic evidence for multiple magma reservoirs and subvolcanic lateral intrusions at fernandina volcano galapagos islands 1 using interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar measurements of the surface deformation at fernandina volcano galapagos ecuador acquired between january 2003 and september 2010 we study the structure and the dynamics of the shallow magmatic system of the volcano through the analysis of spatial and temporal variations of the measured line of sight displacement we identify multiple sources of deformation beneath the summit and the southern flank at least two sources are considered to represent permanent zones of magma storage given their persistent or recurrent activity elastic deformation models indicate the presence of a flat topped magma reservoir at 1 1 km below sea level and an oblate spheroid cavity at 4 9 km b s l the two reservoirs are hydraulically connected this inferred structure of the shallow storage system is in agreement with previous geodetic studies and previous petrological analysis of both subaerial and submarine lavas the almost eight year long observation interval provides for the first time geodetic evidence for two subvolcanic lateral intrusions from the central storage system in december 2006 and august 2007 subvolcanic lateral intrusions could provide the explanation for enigmatic volcanic events at fernandina such as the rapid uplift at punta espinoza in 1927 and the 1968 caldera collapse without significant eruption

anomalously thin transition zone beneath the galapagos hotspot differential arrival times of p to s conversions at 410 and 660 km depth measured from radial receiver functions are used to determine the thickness of the mantle transition zone beneath the galapagos hotspot for an area of approximately 700 km 2 surrounding the galapagos archipelago p660s3p410s times are not significantly different from those for the pacific basin in contrast a subset of the galapagos data yields differential times indicating thinning of the mantle transition zone by 18 3 8 km within an area approximately 100 km in radius centered about 40 km southwest of the center of the island of fernandina this anomaly is consistent with an excess temperature of 130 3 60 k within this volume of the transition zone comparable to that inferred beneath the iceland and society hotspots the most straightforward interpretation of this anomaly is that a mantle plume upwelling from depths greater than 410 km underlies the galapagos hotspot

mantle temperature anomalies along the past and paleoaxes of the galapagos spreading center as inferred from gravity analyses to better understand the effects of hot spots on mid ocean ridge thermal structure we investigate the subsurface density structure of the galapagos spreading center and nearby lithosphere using shipboard gravity and bathymetry data we obtain maps of mantle bouguer anomalies mba by removing from the free air gravity the attractions of seafloor topography and a 6 km thick model crust comparison of observed and theoretical mba profiles along isochrons for ages 0 0 7 7 ma suggests that seafloor topography is isostatically compensated by mass anomalies primarily in the upper 100 km of the mantle this result is consistent with the notion that seafloor topography along the galapagos spreading center is supported by lateral changes of crustal thickness and upper mantle density both of which are controlled by temperatures in the upper mantle where decompression melting occurs along the ridge axis the mba decreases from the east and west toward the galapagos hot spot by 90 mgal reaching a minimum nearest the hot spot at 91 w seafloor topography mirrors the mba along axis increasing by 1 1 km toward the hot spot these variations in mba and bathymetry can be explained by crustal thickening and mantle density variations resulting from a gradual axial temperature increase of 50 25 c toward the hot spot the predicted crustal thickening of 2 4 km nearest the hot spot accounts for 70 75 of the along axis mba and bathymetry anomalies mantle density variations account for the rest of the anomalies from the crustal isochron of age 7 7 ma to the present day axis the along isochron amplitudes of mba decrease from 150 to 90 mgal the corresponding along isochron bathymetry anomalies decrease from 1 7 to 1 1 km these observations along the paleoaxes of the galapagos spreading center indicate that the axial temperature anomaly was 70 hotter in the past 86 25 c and has steadily decreased to 50 25 c as the ridge axis migrated away from the galapagos hot spot these along isochron temperature anomalies however have remained well below that estimated for the hot spot itself 200 c indicating that the lateral temperature gradient between the hot spot and the ridge axis has remained 10 20 times greater than that along the ridge axis over the past 7 7 m y

three dimensional seismic velocity structure of mauna loa and kilauea volcanoes in hawaii from local seismic tomography we present a new three dimensional seismic velocity model of the crustal and upper mantle structure for mauna loa and kilauea volcanoes in hawaii our model is derived from the first arrival times of the compressional and shear waves from about 53 000 events on and near the island of hawaii between 1992 and 2009 recorded by the hawaiian volcano observatory stations the vp model generally agrees with previous studies showing high velocity anomalies near the calderas and rift zones and low velocity anomalies in the fault systems the most significant difference from previous models is in v p vs structure the high vp and high v p vs anomalies below mauna loa caldera are interpreted as mafic magmatic cumulates the observed low vp and high v p vs bodies in the kaoiki seismic zone between 5 and 15 km depth are attributed to the underlying volcaniclastic sediments the high vp and moderate to low vp vs anomalies beneath kilauea caldera can be explained by a combination of different mafic compositions likely to be olivine rich gabbro and dunite the systematically low vp and low vp vs bodies in the southeast flank of kilauea may be caused by the presence of volatiles another difference between this study and previous ones is the improved vp model resolution in deeper layers owing to the inclusion of events with large epicentral distances the new velocity model is used to relocate the seismicity of mauna loa and kilauea for improved absolute locations and ultimately to develop a high precision earthquake catalog using waveform cross correlation data 2014 american geophysical union all rights reserved

seismicity patterns during a period of inflation at sierra negra volcano galapagos ocean island chain basaltic shield volcanoes of the western galapagos islands are among the most rapidly deforming volcanoes worldwide but little was known of the internal structure and brittle deformation processes accompanying inflation and deflation cycles a 15 station broadband seismic array was deployed on and surrounding sierra negra volcano galapagos from july 2009 through june 2011 to characterize seismic strain patterns during an inter eruption inflation period and to evaluate single and layered magma chamber models for ocean island volcanoes we compare precise earthquake locations determined from a 3d velocity model and from a double difference cluster method using first motion of p arrivals we determine focal mechanisms for 8 of the largest earthquakes ml 1 5ml 1 5 located within the array most of the 2382 earthquakes detected by the array occurred beneath the broad 9 km wide sierra negra caldera at depths from surface to about 8 km below sea level although outside our array frequent and larger magnitude ml 3 4ml 3 4 earthquakes occurred at alcedo and fernandina volcano and in a spatial cluster beneath the shallow marine platform between fernandina and sierra negra volcanoes the time space relations and focal mechanism solutions from a 4 day long period of intense seismicity june 4 9 2010 along the southeastern flank of sierra negra suggests that the upward migrating earthquake swarm occurred during a small volume intrusion at depths 5 8 km subsurface but there was no detectable signal in insar data to further constrain geometry and volume focal mechanisms of earthquakes beneath the steep intra caldera faults and along the ring fault system are reverse and strike slip these new seismicity data integrated with tomographic geodetic and petrological models indicate a stratified magmatic plumbing system a shallow sill beneath the large caldera that is supplied by magma from a large volume deeper feeding system the large amplitude inter eruption inflation of the shallow sill beneath the sierra negra caldera is accompanied by only very small magnitude earthquakes although historical records indicate that larger magnitude earthquakes mw 6 occur during eruptions trapdoor faulting episodes without eruptions and large volume flank intrusions