Evaluation methods of heat discharge and their applications to the major active volcanoes in Japan

Abstract

The rates at which thermal energy is released by non-eruptive mechanisms associated with active volcanoes in Japan have been estimated from surface temperature distributions or from shapes of the fumarolic plume rise. Values of 5.3 x 10 7 W and 1.2 x 10 8 W have been calculated for non-eruptive release rates in 100-km segments of the Northeast and the Southwest Japan Arc, respectively. It appears that non-eruptive heat discharge is of the same order as that caused by eruptions.