State-of-the-Art Monitoring of Deception Island Volcano, Antarctica

JAVIER ALMENDROS; MANUEL BERROCOSO; ENRIQUE CARMONA; IVAN FERNANDEZ MELCHOR

Montreal

Otro; 27th IUGG General Assembly; 2019

Deception Island is an active volcano located in the Bransfield Strait, between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. It displays different manifestations of volcanism such as young volcanic deposits, recent eruptions (latest in 1967-1970), fumaroles and gas emissions, geothermal areas, and a moderate but highly variable level of seismic activity. Deception Island is the site of two scientific bases (Spanish and Argentinian), and it is among the Antarctic destinations most visited by tourists, which emphasizes the need for volcano surveillance. A joint team from University of Granada and University of Cadiz, Spain, carries out multiparametric volcano monitoring since the early 90s. Current monitoring techniques include seismology, deformation, sea level variations, and thermal anomalies. Recent advances include the development of software to monitor the seismic and geodetic activity, the generalization of wifi communications for real-time access to data, the design of a spatial inclinometer, the extension of the seismic network to the southern half of the island, the deployment of permanent stations with year-round recording, and the use of a satellite connection for remote access to data. In the last two decades, Deception Island has undergone at least two processes of magmatic intrusions in 1999 and 2015, although these perturbations did not reach the surface. They were typically accompanied by enhanced seismicity, anomalous temperatures, and periods of inflation and deflation. After 2015 the levels of seismic activity decayed steadily, however in the December 2018 - March 2019 survey the volcano has displayed again signs of increasing activity.