The 2014–2015 complex collapse of the Bárðarbunga caldera, Iceland, revealed by seismic moment tensors

Abstract

Between August 2014 and February 2015, a caldera collapse process in Bárðarbunga volcano accompanied a fissure eruption at the Holuhraun lava field after magma had propagated laterally 45 km from the Bárðarbunga magma chamber to the lava field. The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) reported around 30,000 earthquakes at the caldera, including more than 70 earthquakes with moment magnitude MW ≥ 5.0. We built a moment tensor catalog of around 230 seismic events at the caldera with MW between 3.7 and 5.5 using a waveform inversion method. We identified five event families based on focal mechanisms, double couple (DC) and compensated linear vector dipole (CLVD) components, epicentral distribution relative to the caldera center, and time of occurrence. The main characteristics of these families are (1) DC to CLVD normal faulting events with steep (50°–70°) to near-vertical (>70°) dip angles on the northern side of the caldera; (2) DC to CLVD normal events with predominant steep (50°–70°) dip angles on the southern side of the caldera; (3) intra-caldera oblique strike-slip events; and (4) thrust events at the eastern side of the caldera with a horizontal tension axis compensated linear vector dipole (T-CLVD) component. Each family provided new insights about the Bárðarbunga collapse mechanism such as (1) a systematic increase in the CLVD component with magnitude, corroborating that the curvature in the ring fault is the likely cause for the vertical CLVD moment tensors observed for the largest events; (2) seismic evidence of near-vertical dip angles in agreement with the vertical faults observed in many calderas worldwide, and numerical and analog models of caldera collapse structures; (3) intra-caldera oblique and strike-slip events on the western side of the caldera occurred by asymmetric collapse; (4) thrust horizontal T-CLVD events observed at the last stage of the eruption, possibly related to a viscoelastic response.