Malargüe seismic array: Design and deployment of the temporary array

Abstract

We present the goals and the current status of the Malargue seismic array. Our main goal is imaging and monitoring the subsurface below the Malargue region, Mendoza, Argentina. More specifically, we focus on the Planchon-Peteroa Volcano and an area just east of the town of Malargue. We start our project installing a temporary array of 38 seismic stations, which records continuously for one year. The array consists of two subarrays: one array located on the flanks of the volcano; the other spread out on a plateau just east of the Andes. The imaging targets, like the Moho and the Nazca slab, are relatively deep. Yet, the array has a dense station spacing, allowing exploration-type processing. For high-resolution imaging, also a dense source spacing is required. This we aim to achieve by creating virtual sources at the receiver positions, with a technique called seismic interferometry (SI). The array is designed such that a recent improvement of SI can be applied to the recordings. Other goals are to collect high-quality core-phase measurements and to characterize sources of microseism noise in the Southern Hemisphere. Furthermore, we plan to collaborate with researchers from the Pierre Auger Collaboration to study coupling of seismic, atmospheric, and cosmic signals using data from our instruments and from the Pierre Auger detectors.