Deformation and stress in hydrothermal regions: The case of a disk-shaped inclusion in a half-space

Abstract

Hydrothermal regions are affected by a wide variety of phenomena, including ground inflation and deflation episodes. Among them, calderas offer the opportunity to study the complex interactions between magmatic processes at depth and permeable rocks saturated with fluids in the upper sedimentary layers. One of such regions is the Campi Flegrei caldera in southern Italy, where several source models have been applied over the years to reproduce the ground displacement and seismicity observed during the most recent phase of major unrest (1982–1984). The present work aims at introducing a new source model consisting of a thermo-poro-elastic inclusion embedded in a homogeneous poroelastic half-space. The inclusion is meant to represent a permeable rock layer stressed and strained by hot and pressurized volatiles released upward by an underlying magmatic reservoir and is modeled as a thin horizontal disk inside which a sudden change of temperature and pore pressure occurs. We provide semi-analytical solutions for the displacement and stress fields both within and outside the source and check them by comparison with those obtained through a fully numerical approach. Results provided by our model are compared with two other deformation source models often used to describe volcanic environments in terms of pressurized cavities describing a spherical magma chamber (Mogi source) or a sill-like magma intrusion (Fialko source). For the Campi Flegrei 1982–84 unrest, our model provides a better reproduction of ground deformation data and manages to explain the widespread presence of compressive focal mechanisms, since the stress field promoted both inside and outside the thermo-poro-elastic inclusion is very different from pressurized cavities.