Joint interpretation of displacements and gravity data in volcanic areas. A test example: Long Valley Caldera, California

Abstract

Volcanic activity produces deformation and gravity changes that many times can be used as precursors of future eruptions. Applying geodetic techniques to monitoring activity involves interpretation using deformation models. Usually gravity change data and displacement data are interpreted separately. We show, using modeling of deformation and gravity change data in Long Valley Caldera, California, USA, that this can lead to incorrect interpretations. The results obtained show that displacements and gravity changes must be interpreted together whenever possible and that elastic-gravitational models can be a far more appropriate approximation to problems of volcanic load in the crust than the more commonly used purely elastic models. Therefore it is necessary to change the philosophy normally used to interpret geodetic observations, improving the possibility of predicting future eruptions.