Volcanic earthquakes in Alaska's national parks

Abstract

Alaska’s national parks contain 11 historically active volcanoes (Figure 2), which produce thousands of small earthquakes every year. These earthquakes are voices of the magmatic and geothermal systems within the volcanoes. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), a joint program of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, monitors volcanic earthquakes year round with networks of seismometers (Figure 4). Data from these networks allow AVO to evaluate the state of magmatic systems and provide warning of volcanic unrest, potential eruptions, and hazards. The key to correctly interpreting earthquakes lies in understanding the physical processes that trigger earthquakes at volcanoes.