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Pu HC, Lin CH, Lai YC, Shih MH, Chang LC, Lee HF, Lee PT, Hong GT, Li YH, Chang WY, Lo CH. Active Volcanism Revealed from a Seismicity Conduit in the Long-resting Tatun Volcano Group of Northern Taiwan. Sci Rep 2020; 10:6153. [PMID: 32273552 PMCID: PMC7145833 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-63270-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2019] [Accepted: 03/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Abundant earthquakes clustered within a particular zone often reflect an active geological feature, such as clustering seismicity along a fault zone and a huge number of volcanic-earthquakes around the erupting conduit. Herein we perform a double-difference tomographic inversion and relocate the seismicity at the long-resting Tatun volcano group (TVG) in northern Taiwan. A dramatic improvement of the earthquake location model surprisingly show that, from 2014 to 2017, two clustered seismic zones are identified in the TVG. One major group of events (>1000) persistently clustered within a ~500 m diameter vertical conduit with a ~2 km height. The clustering seismicity conduit is just located nearby Dayoukeng, one of the strongest fumaroles in the TVG, and is connected to a fracture zone characterized by low Vp/Vs in the shallow crust. The other group of events is clustered within a sphere-like zone beneath Mt. Chihsin around the depths between 0.5 km and 2 km. Both seismic zones are probably triggered by the significantly volcanic gases and fluids ascending from the deep magma reservoir. Combined with a variety of results from literature, the seismicity conduit near the strong fumarole is the evidence for an active volcano and also identifies a likely pathway for ascending magma if the TVG erupts again in the future. But possibility of developing different magma pathways at other clustered seismic zones such as beneath Mt. Chihsin may not be totally excluded.
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Affiliation(s)
- H C Pu
- Seismological Center, Central Weather Bureau, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - C H Lin
- Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. .,National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, National Applied Research laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan. .,Taiwan Volcano Observatory at Tatun, Taipei, Taiwan. .,Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Y C Lai
- National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, National Applied Research laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan.,Taiwan Volcano Observatory at Tatun, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - M H Shih
- Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.,Taiwan Volcano Observatory at Tatun, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - L C Chang
- National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, National Applied Research laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan.,Taiwan Volcano Observatory at Tatun, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - H F Lee
- National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, National Applied Research laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan.,Taiwan Volcano Observatory at Tatun, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - P T Lee
- Central Geological Survey, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - G T Hong
- Central Geological Survey, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Y H Li
- Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - W Y Chang
- College of Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan.,Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Ecology and Sustainability, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan
| | - C H Lo
- National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, National Applied Research laboratories, Taipei, Taiwan.,Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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Affiliation(s)
| | - K. C. Swallow
- Department of Chemistry, Merrimack College, 315 Turnpike Street, North Andover, MA 01845
| | - G. T. Hong
- MODAR, Inc., 14 Tech Circle, Natick, MA 01760
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