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Icecap and Subglacial Crustal Deformation Inferred From SAR Pixel Tracking: The 2014 Dike Intrusion Episode in the Bárðarbunga Volcanic System, Iceland
Author(s) -
Himematsu Yuji,
Sigmundsson Freysteinn,
Furuya Masato
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1029/2019jb017652
Subject(s) - geology , dike , seismology , deformation (meteorology) , volcano , interferometric synthetic aperture radar , geodetic datum , tectonics , geodesy , synthetic aperture radar , remote sensing , petrology , oceanography
Bárðarbunga is an active volcano beneath the Vatnajökull icecap in Iceland, where a subglacial dike intrusion occurred in 2014. This area has been studied with interferometric synthetic aperture radar, an important geodetic method that measures crustal deformation; however, ice/snow cover on volcanoes impedes the mapping of crustal deformation because of decorrelation problems. Previous geodetic observations have reported deformation signals at ice‐free regions of a major dike formed in 2014 in the Bárðarbunga volcanic system, but direct observations of the subglacial crustal deformation associated with the dike intrusion have been limited. We applied a pixel tracking approach to various satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over the northern part of the Vatnajokull icecap and the Holuhraun plain. The pixel tracking data revealed not only crustal deformation fields in the ice‐free region of the magma intrusion, which covers only about 20% of the entire length of dike, but also icecap surface movements over the subglacial part of the dike in the ablation area of the Vatnajökull icecap. Signals above the icecap, suggesting subsidence due to subglacial graben formation, are consistent with the dike propagation path inferred from seismicity during the episode. By subtracting the scaled pre‐diking signals from the co‐diking signals, we corrected for the steady‐state icecap flow signals to derive the subglacial crustal deformations. We showed that the inferred subglacial crustal deformation signals can significantly contribute to the improvement of dike opening/faulting distributions. Applying the pixel tracking to satellite images will enable mapping subglacial crustal deformation in the case of subglacial volcanic activity.