A Major Hydrothermal Reservoir Underneath the Tatun Volcano Group of Taiwan: Clues from a Dense Linear Geophone Array

Abstract

A dense linear geophone array is deployed across the Tatun volcano group (TVG) at the northern tip of Taiwan, where more than 7 million residents live in the Taipei metropolis. The array is composed of 50 geophones with a station spacing of ~ 200 m in average, and it is designed for striking in the NW–SE direction to record the many earthquakes in eastern Taiwan, where the Philippine Sea plate subducted beneath the Eurasia plate. The detailed examination of felt earthquakes shows consistent P-wave delays are recorded at particular stations of the array. The further forward modeling indicates there is a low-velocity zone (LVZ) at depths between ~ 0.5 and ~ 2.5 km beneath the major fumarole sites. Combining this preliminary result with previous studies including clustering seismicity, volcanic earthquakes, low-resistivity zone, strong degassing processes and shallow velocity structures, we suggest that the LVZ might be associated with the major hydrothermal reservoir at the TVG. The identification of the hydrothermal reservoir by the LVZ not only implies a potential volcanic threat, such as phreatic eruptions, in the future, but also provides the possibility of sustainable geothermal resources for replacing traditional nuclear and fossil fuel power plants. Detailed images of the LVZ and other volcanic structures will be obtained soon when dense geophone arrays with more than 600 geophones are deployed from 2020 to 2022.