Magma Fracking Beneath Active Volcanoes Based on Seismic Data and Hydrothermal Activity Observations

Active volcanoes are associated with microearthquake (MEQ) hypocenters that form plane-oriented cluster distributions. These are faults delineating a magma injection system of dykes and sills. The Frac-Digger program was used to track fracking faults in the Kamchatka active volcanic belt and fore-ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geosciences
Main Authors: Alexey Kiryukhin, Evgenia Chernykh, Andrey Polyakov, Alexey Solomatin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10020052
https://doaj.org/article/d829c0df2f334cf3a6bacbaafe6edabf
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Summary:Active volcanoes are associated with microearthquake (MEQ) hypocenters that form plane-oriented cluster distributions. These are faults delineating a magma injection system of dykes and sills. The Frac-Digger program was used to track fracking faults in the Kamchatka active volcanic belt and fore-arc region of Russia. In the case of magma laterally injected from volcanoes into adjacent structures, high-temperature hydrothermal systems arise, for example at Mutnovsky and Koryaksky volcanoes. Thermal features adjacent to these active volcanoes respond to magma injection events by degassing CO 2 and by transient temperature changes. Geysers created by CO 2 -gaslift activity in silicic volcanism areas also flag magma and CO 2 recharge and redistributions, for example at the Uzon-Geyserny, Kamchatka, Russia and Yellowstone, USA magma hydrothermal systems. Seismogenic faults in the Kamchatka fore-arc region are indicators of geofluid fracking; those faults can be traced down to 250 km depth, which is within the subduction slab below primary magma sources.