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Long‐term monitoring of long‐period seismicity and space‐based SO 2 observations at African lava lake volcanoes Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira (DR Congo)
Author(s) -
Barrière Julien,
Oth Adrien,
Theys Nicolas,
d'Oreye Nicolas,
Kervyn François
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl073348
Subject(s) - volcano , geology , unrest , lava , magma , induced seismicity , seismology , period (music) , earth science , politics , political science , law , physics , acoustics
Magma ascent that may lead to an eruption is commonly accompanied by variations of long‐period seismic activity and SO 2 degassing. Space‐based measurements of SO 2 emission rates represent a rapidly emerging and highly convenient approach for volcano monitoring; however, combining these long‐term remote sensing observations with seismic data is still rare and, in particular, the potential of such a multidisciplinary approach as volcano monitoring tool remains largely unexplored. Here shallow magmatic activity and magma migration patterns at the two closely located African volcanoes Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira are inferred from a nearly 3 years long SO 2 emissions record and seismic observations between April 2014 and February 2017. The discrimination of magma movements into shallow plumbing systems allows for signs of volcanic unrest to be deciphered on a daily time scale, even with limited instrumentation on site.