Ww. Chadwick et al., Evidence for deformation associated with the 1998 eruption of Axial Volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge, from acoustic extensometer measurements, GEOPHYS R L, 26(23), 1999, pp. 3441-3444
Acoustic extensometer instruments capable of making precise daily measureme
nts of horizontal distance were deployed across the north rift zone of Axia
l Volcano in June 1996 and were in place when a submarine eruption began on
Axial's south rift zone in January 1998. The instruments recorded a gradua
l 9-cm extension over a 405-m baseline leading up to the eruption, and then
an abrupt, 4-cm contraction at the time of the eruption. An elastic point-
source deformation model shows that deflation of Axial's summit can explain
both the 4-cm distance decrease at the extensometer: array and a 3.2-m sub
sidence measured by another instrument in the caldera, if the pressure sour
ce is located at a depth of 3.8 km below the center of the caldera. The 9-c
m distance increase may represent pre-eruption spreading across the rift zo
ne.