Imaging magma storage below Teide volcano (Tenerife) using scattered seismic wavefields

Abstract

SUMMARY Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) is a volcanic island dominated by the Teide-Pico Viejo complex, with a summit height of 3718 m. After renewed signs of activity starting in 2004, an active seismic experiment was performed in 2007 to derive a tomographic model and identify seismic anomalies possibly associated with the magmatic system. To complement the tomography, a double beam-forming analysis is applied on two orthogonal 2-D profiles crossing the island to look for evidence of the existence of a magma chamber. Numerical tests allow us to investigate the best measure of coherency between traces, and show that the correlation and nth root semblance methods give better results than the classical semblance. They also demonstrate that the technique is reliable for locating scattering structures at depth, even when the velocity model is imperfect. Applying this technique to the Tenerife data set, two main anomalies can be identified: one at approximately 7–9 km b.s.l. depth in the northern part of the island, and one shallower (1–4 km b.s.l.) beneath the main summit. These structures could be linked to the magmatic system, in good agreement with previous studies. The shallowest one may be the phonolitic storage area feeding the Teide-Pico Viejo complex, while the deepest structure may be related to the basaltic system.