Implications for Shallow Magma Transfer During the 2017 and 2018 Eruptions at Fernandina (Galápagos) Inferred From InSAR Data

Abstract

AbstractPrevious work at Fernandina, the most active volcano of the Western Galápagos (Ecuador), revealed evidence for both a shallow and a deep magma reservoir, but the relative contribution of the two reservoirs to eruptions remains unclear. Here we investigate the September 2017 circumferential eruption and the June 2018 radial eruption using interferometric synthetic aperture radar data and geodetic modeling. Our results show that during the 2017 eruption magma was simultaneously withdrawn from the deep reservoir, injected upwards through the shallow reservoir, and then fed the circumferential feeder dike to the SW of the caldera. Two episodes of inflow of new magma occurred in both the deep and shallow magma reservoirs in the inter‐eruptive period from December 2017 to May 2018. During the 2018 eruption, both reservoirs fed two radial feeder dikes below the north flank, probably interacting with an underlying peripheral melt pocket, and an inclined sheet below the NW sector of the caldera. Our results highlight the primary role of the deeper reservoir which accumulates most of the magma before eruptions. Both eruptions were characterized by rapid magma transfer from the deeper to the shallower reservoir. This is similar to what is observed at the nearby Wolf volcano, but unlike nearby Sierra Negra, where a shallower reservoir accumulates higher volumes of magma before eruptions. These differences in the pre‐eruptive role of the deeper and shallower reservoirs might be related to the different evolutionary stages of Fernandina and Wolf with regard to the more mature Sierra Negra.