Shallow seismic imaging of flank collapse structures in oceanic island volcanoes: Application to the Western Canary Islands

Volcanic flank collapse counts among the many hazards associated with volcanic activity. This type of event involves the mobilization of large volumes, producing debris avalanches. It affects mostly oceanic island volcanoes, involving the potential for tsunami occurrence. Geophysical imaging can illuminate subvolcanic features such as volcano-tectonic structures, magmatic plumbing systems or differences in rock type. The most commonly used geophysical methods are gravity, electromagnetics and seismics. In particular, seismic measurements quantify anomalies in seismic waves propagation velocities and can be used to obtain information on the subsurface arrangement of different materials. In the Western Canary Islands, the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma (Canary Islands) has been proposed to be near the collapse stage. Previous geophysical studies that have been carried out on the flank of the volcano comprise gravity and electromagnetic methods. These types of surveys gather information on the deep structures of the volcano (1-2 km). In this project, we complement previous studies by using seismic methods to investigate the near-surface seismic structure of the Cumbre Vieja fault system (La Palma Island) and the structure of the well-developed San Andres fault system (El Hierro Island). We aim to compare the Cumbre Vieja and San Andres fault systems to infer the degree of maturity of collapse structures. We carried out reflection and refraction seismic surveys in order to image approximately the first 10 meters of the subsurface. We used 24 low frequency (4,5 Hz) geophones as receivers and a sledge hammer as the seismic source. The survey lines were located across visible parts of the fault systems at the Cumbre Vieja volcano and the San Andres fault in El Hierro. Here, we present the survey setup and results from the preliminary analysis of the data.