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Real-Time Seismic Estimation of Vei: Improving Reduced Displacement & Introducing the MVO Energy Magnitude Scale

Description: 

The Volcanic Explosivity Index (Newhall and Self, 1982) was conceived as a crude magnitude scale for past volcanic eruptions, based on field observations such as volume of material ejected, and eruption column height. Within days of the Hunga Tonga eruption in January 2022, there was online discussion about whether to classify it as a VEI 5 based on erupted material (with an unknown volume in the ocean) or VEI 6 based on pressure and gravity waves that propagated many times around the globe, similar to the VEI 6 eruption of Pinatubo in 1991. There were also attempts to estimate VEI based on seismic data. However, these were not new, as there were previous attempts to correlate ash column height with seismic amplitude (McNutt 1994) using a measure called “reduced displacement”, which was described as “a magnitude scale for volcanic tremor”. Moreover, in year 2000 a real-time volcano-seismic magnitude scale was implemented at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. Reduced pressure is another measurement that can be used when infrasound or barometric data are available. We propose a simple seismo-acoustic VEI estimator based on reduced displacement, reduced pressure, and energy magnitude, and have implemented these as part of a Python/ObsPy package.

Session: Multidisciplinary Approaches for Volcanic Eruption Forecasting [Poster Session]

Type: Poster

Date: 5/2/2024

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Glenn

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors