TREMOR · TRemor as Eruption MOnitoR

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Project objective

A small eruption in Iceland in 2010 had a big impact on the economy, airlines, and people in Europe and worldwide.Forecasting eruptions and mitigating their effects requires better understanding of the precursory signals and their detectionamongst other signals. One of the key geophysical signals is volcanic tremor which is observed before and during eruptionsbut is only phenomenologically interpreted. The project TREMOR, based at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) andthe University of Cambridge will exploit their extensive, multidisciplinary databases including recordings of recent eruptionsand floods. It will overcome present shortcomings, such as badly constrained tremor locations through use of new locationtechniques, dense seismic networks and small source-receiver distances. These improvements are made possible by theFUTUREVOLC project (FP7, 2012-2016) which expanded existing networks in Iceland shortly before the Bardarbunga2014/15 eruption. Preliminary results during the researchers PhD suggest that both pre-eruptive and eruptive tremor existduring this eruption and have different characteristics. The TREMOR project will continue from this point with the objectivesto (i) systematically search for pre-eruptive tremor, (ii) characterise it with respect to eruptive tremor and other tremorsources such as floods, glaciers and hydrothermal boiling, (iii) find factors that affect its characteristics and (iv) understandthe source mechanism better. If TREMOR is successful, pre-eruptive tremor can be introduced as an eruption precursor, notonly with direct application at IMO, but potentially worldwide. This thorough study will form the basis of future research, as itwill be disseminated through conference presentations, publication in peer-reviewed journals and communication to thepublic. It will further train and integrate the researcher into two effective, experienced, multidisciplinary research groups tostrengthen professional maturity.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• VEDURSTOFA ISLANDS · ReykjavikCoordinatorIceland

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/789887