This proposal requests funds to help support a number of U.S. scientists, including graduate students, postdocs and junior scientists to attend the "2014 US Volcano Seismology workshop" to be held at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage on April 29, 2014. The aims of this workshop is to bring together the U.S. volcano seismology community in a one day long series of small- and large-group discussions aimed at developing a community-driven plan to address the key outstanding scientific and technical challenges in the field of volcano seismology.
Observations of volcano-seismic phenomena generally provide one of the most reliable bases for forecasting hazardous volcanic phenomena. As a result, the number of seismically-monitored volcanoes has increased dramatically in recent years, resulting in a large proliferation of high-quality data sets. This workshop will address questions related to the effective organization and exploitation of this large data set to address some of the most critical outstanding issues in the field, and it is part of an international concerted effort to advance the field through large-scale collaborative research, tool-building and resource sharing.
This proposal supported a one-day workshop on April 29, 2014, in Anchorage, Alaska, aimed at bringing together U.S. researchers and technicians at a range of levels to develop a shared vision for the field of volcano seismology. Specific workshop goals included development of a list of key outstanding scientific and technical challenges, and a general plan for addressing these through community-wide efforts over the next five years. Such a meeting was timely due to the intense growth of the field of volcano seismology over the past decade, a combined result of a) the success of volcano seismologists in contributing to forecasts of recent eruptions, and b) a proliferation of new high-quality data sets from key, well-monitored eruptions in the U.S. and elsewhere. 37 scientists participated in the workshop, including eight graduate students and five postdocs. 21 of the participants were from academic institutions, and 16 were from the USGS. Two scientists were from non-US institutions. In addition, a representative from the National Science Foundation attended the workshop to observe discussions and provide advice on funding possibilities for community-driven science plans. The workshop involved two sessions of whole-group discussion surrounding a session of small-group 'breakout' discussions. Workshop participants identified several key unresolved questions in scientific understanding including A) identification of the seismic source versus wave propagation effects, B) a basic understanding of the source processes of the various commonly observed seismic event types, and C) and difficulties with current seismic event classification paradigms. Furthermore, workshop participants identified several key technical obstacles impeding scientific progress in volcano seismology. These included A) numerous data sets from past episodes of volcanic unrest or eruptions that are not consistently archived with appropriate metadata, B) software and analysis tools that are not centralized or consistently maintained. Furthermore, C) required instrumentation tthat is expensive and difficult to maintain, especially on active volcanoes that are often in remote areas, at high altitude, and that are frequently exposed to corrosive gases and other destructive volcanic processes. The results of the workshop discussions were summarized in a white paper by the workshop conveners, which was circulated to all participants for review and comment. This document is now in the final stages of editing and will be presented to scientific agencies and stakeholders including the NSF, USGS, NASA, and NOAA. Three participants in the NSF-funded U.S. Volcano Seismology workshop also attended a similar European Volcano Seismology workshop held in Oxford, England in August 2014. Cross-participation of several scientists in both workshop helped to link outcomes and recommendations and identify future areas of collaboration between the two communities. Finally, a follow-up scientific session, "Outstanding Challenges in the Seismological Study of Volcanic Processes" is being convened at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, and will be accompanied by an open group meeting to plan steps for the next phase of community-driven science guided by the workshop and session outcomes.
