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Monitoring volcanoes with microgravity surveys

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, page 416 (2024)Cite this article

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Volcanic eruptions can lead to loss of life and economic losses in the surrounding regions. Detecting signs of unrest, such as an increase in seismic activity, gas emission or uplift of the Earth’s crust, can provide an early eruption warning, allowing time for people to evacuate. However, unrest can be caused by different factors, including the input of new magma, which is likely to trigger an eruption, or by other factors such as the circulation of hydrothermal fluids, which are less likely to trigger an eruption. Therefore, to reliably predict whether an eruption will occur it is necessary to determine the cause of the unrest.

Microgravity surveys performed around volcanoes such as Kīlauea have detected gravity increases caused by an increase in the subsurface magma mass, which could trigger an eruption, despite the absence of any signs of unrest. Hence, microgravity surveys should be used to regularly monitor volcanoes, especially because technological advances are leading to the development of cheaper and more portable gravimeters, making this technique more accessible and easier to perform.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) for the support with the Scholarship program, Beca de Doctorado en el Extranjero 72210412. The author thanks DEEPVOLC and ISVOLC projects for support and funding. Additionally, the author thanks E. Z. Van-Dalfsen for taking the picture and for her help and teachings about microgravity. The author especially thanks A. Hooper for his support and reviews.

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  1. COMET, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Josefa Sepúlveda-Araya

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  1. Josefa Sepúlveda-Araya
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Correspondence to Josefa Sepúlveda-Araya.

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Sepúlveda-Araya, J. Monitoring volcanoes with microgravity surveys. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 416 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00563-9

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