Seismicity and crustal structure of the Terceira Island, Azores
- 1University of Évora, Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), Department of Physics, Évora, Portugal (jfontiela@uevora.pt)
- 2Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal
- 3Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro, 1, 1959-007, Lisboa, Portugal
We present the analysis of the local and regional seismicity recorded in 2019-2021 by a temporary seismic network installed on Terceira Island. This new seismic dataset allow us to study the induced seismicity caused by fluid extraction in a geothermal powerplant and to image the subsurface seismic structure with local earthquake tomography.
From the distribution of the seismicity, it is possible to highlight two regions with a high number of events amongst other areas. The first one, located in the central part of the island, is associated with the volcanoes of Pico Alto and Guilherme Moniz, with low magnitude earthquakes, and hypocentre's depths less than 10 km. The geothermal power plant is located in the transition between these two volcanic systems. We identify a cluster of earthquakes in the neighbourhood of the geothermal power plant at depths ranging from 1 to 3 km, consistent with the induction by the powerplant operation. The second seismicity region is located on the island's western sector, at the Santa Bárbara volcanic system. There, the seismicity pattern is more complex, mainly by the occurrence of both tectonic and seismo-volcanic earthquakes.
Local earthquake tomography allows imaging of the crust from the surface to the upper-middle crust, up to 8 km depth. The Santa Bárbara and Pico Alto volcanoes are characterized by low Vp and high Vp/Vs anomalies, stronger in the first and typically related to active volcanoes. In the transition between the two volcanoes, we observe shallow strong Vp and very low Vp/Vs anomalies typical of geothermal fields. On the other hand, the Guilherme Moniz volcano exhibits high Vp anomaly and normal Vp/Vs values.
The eastern sector of the Terceira is characterized by low seismicity and, consequently, low tomographic resolution.
This work is a contribution to projects GEMMA (PTDC/CTA-GEO/2083/2021) and RESTLESS (PTDC/CTA-GEF/6674/2020), and it was also supported by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) I.P./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) – UIDB/50019/2020-IDL, UIDB/04683/2020 - ICT and UIDP/04683/2020 - ICT
How to cite: Fontiela, J., Afonso Dias, N., Silveira, G., Moreira, M., and Matias, L.: Seismicity and crustal structure of the Terceira Island, Azores, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14189, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14189, 2023.
