Intermediate-Term Declines in Seismicity at Mt. Wrangell and Mt. Veniaminof Volcanoes, Alaska, Following the November 3, 2002 Mw 7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake

On November 3, 2002 a Mw 7.9 earthquake ruptured segments of the Denali Fault and adjacent faults in interior Alaska providing a unique opportunity to look for intermediate-term (days to weeks) responses of Alaskan volcanoes to shaking from a large regional earthquake. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitors 24 volcanoes with seismograph networks. We examined one station per volcano, generally the closest to the vent (typically within 5 km) unless noise, or other factors made the data unusable. Data were digitally filtered between 0.8 and 5 Hz to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. Data for the period four weeks before to four weeks after the Mw 7.9 earthquake were then plotted at a standard scale used for AVO routine monitoring. Mt. Veniaminof volcano, which has had recent mild eruptions and a rate of ten earthquakes per day on station VNNF, suffered a drop in seismicity by a factor of two after the earthquake; this lasted for 15 days. Wrangell, the closest volcano to the epicenter, had a background rate of about 16 earthquakes per day. Data from station WANC could not be measured for 3 days after the Mw 7.9 earthquake because the large number and size of aftershocks impeded identification of local earthquakes. For the following 30 days, however, its seismicity rate dropped by a factor of two. Seismicity then remained low for an additional 4 months at Wrangell, whereas that at Veniaminof returned to normal within weeks. The seismicity at both Mt. Veniaminof and Mt. Wrangell is dominated by low-frequency volcanic events. The detection thresholds for both seismograph networks are low and stations VNNF and WANC operated normally during the time of our study, thus we infer that the changes in seismicity may be related to the earthquake. It is known that Wrangell increased its heat output after the Mw 9.2 Alaska earthquake of 1964 and again after the Ms 7.1 St.Elias earthquake of 1979. The other volcanoes showed no changes in seismicity that can be attributable to the Mw 7.9 earthquake. We conclude that intermediate-term seismicity drops occurred at Mt. Wrangell and Mt. Veniaminof volcanoes, in strong contrast to cases of short-term seismicity increases observed at volcanic systems such as Katmai, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, Mammoth Mountain, and the Geysers, Coso and Cerro Prieto (Mexico) geothermal fields. This suggests that fundamentally different mechanisms may be acting to modify seismicity at volcanoes.