Abstract
We collected audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) data across Usu volcano, Hokkaido, Japan, which erupted in 1977 and is still active. We had a profile of 17 sites perpendicular to the regional tectonic strike, which crossed the 1977 cryptodome, Usu-Shinzan. Tensor-decomposed data were interpreted by a two-dimensional inversion. Outside the crater rim, the resistivity structure is simple. The resistive somma lava is underlain by a conductive substratum, implying altered Tertiary or Quaternary rocks. In the crater, there are two resistive bodies bisected by a vertical conductor, which corresponds to Usu-Shinzan fault, located at the foot of the uplift. The vertical conductor was not detected in the AMT sounding in 1985. One of the possible causes of the development of the vertical conductor is a cold water supply from the surface into the vapor dominant fracture zone. One of the resistive bodies is located beneath Usu-Shinzan and implies an intrusive magma body which caused the 1977 uplift.
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Ogawa, Y., Matsushima, N., Oshima, H. et al. A resistivity cross-section of Usu volcano, Hokkaido, Japan, by audiomagnetotelluric soundings. Earth Planet Sp 50, 339–346 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352120
