Possible Lithosphere Atmosphere Ionosphere Coupling before 19 September 2021 La Palma volcano eruption

On 19 September 2021, La Palma Volcano started a VEI 3 eruption. Here we will illustrate an investigation for at least six months before the eruption with the aim of searching possible lithosphere atmosphere and ionosphere couplings.

We identify and compare the anomalies from the seismic catalogue, the geomagnetic ground observatories, the atmospheric climatological datasets, TEC maps, CSES and Swarm satellites data with respect to the volcano location and the time cumulative trends of anomalies are analyzed.

We identify a temporal migration of the seismicity from one year before the eruption at a depth of 40 km possibly associated with magma migration, firstly to a deep chamber (20-13km depth) and in the last 10 days in a shallower magma chamber. CSES-01 detects an increase in electron density at the same time as vertical ground magnetic field anomalies, very likely due to the magma uprising. A final increase of carbon monoxide 1.5 months before the eruption with unusually high values of TEC suggests the degassing of magma before the eruption associated with shallow seismicity that preceded the eruption by ten days. We identify possible different coupling mechanisms, e.g., chain of mechanical, thermal, chemical and electromagnetic phenomena, or pure electromagnetic coupling). These different lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanisms can coexist.

Our results highlight the importance of integrating several observation platforms and datasets from the ground and space (earth observation satellites) to better understand the dynamics of the processes and associated natural hazards affecting our planet.