Features of the Kizimen Volcano area seismicity prior to and during the 2010–2013 eruption

Abstract

After 82 years of dormancy, Kizimen Volcano in Kamchatka (Russia) produced its first eruption that was supported by seismological observations. The 2010–2013 eruption lasted about three years and was preceded by high rates of seismicity lasting more than one and a half years. In this study we conduct a time-space seismicity analysis and consider the dynamics of the b-value (the slope of the cumulative distribution function of magnitudes). It is shown that there was a constant increase in stress. Which ended with an earthquake with MLmax = 5.2 followed by an eruption. The eruption was characterized by explosive phases and the squeezing out of a very viscous lava flow in 2011–2012. A change from effusive activity to explosive following swarms of volcano-tectonic earthquakes was observed throughout the entire period of the eruption. This confirms the poor mixing of magma in the chamber under the Kizimen Volcano.