This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Dr. Emily Montgomery-Brown is awarded an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship to develop an integrated program of research and education at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She will use both seismic and geodetic data to study the changing magma plumbing system at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. Combining both types of measurements provides an opportunity to study how the seismic properties of the rock change in response to deformation induced by the intrusions. From the deformation data, we will be able to determine the volume change from the intrusions, and how much the host rock was stressed by the volume change. The stress change can alter the seismic properties of the rock by influencing the density or orientation of small cracks. We will be able to observe these effects by measuring when certain parts of the seismic waves from deeper (5-10 km) earthquakes travelling through the study area arrive relative to other parts. The recorded changes will relate directly to the known stress change determined from models of the deformation data.
The response of the host rock to a deformation episode provides insight into what drives the commonly observed steady deformation of the volcano. Possible driving forces include spreading due to the gravitational load of the rock itself, or outward pressure from the internal magmatic system. Visualizing how these driving forces produce eruptions and earthquakes within a volcano is often difficult, so to facilitate understanding, a scale mechanical model of Kilauea will be created in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin's Geology Museum that illustrates the driving forces and variable physical properties of the magmatic and tectonic elements that make up the volcano. This model will then be shared with the public through the Museum?s outreach activities.
