74 research outputs found
Thermo-poro-visco-elastic response of a disk shaped inclusion
The study of deformation sources in volcanic and geothermal fields is a topic of great impor-
tance that generates a large debate in the scientific literature. A correct interpretation of the
deformation sources acting in a volcanic context is crucial to distinguish between the mechan-
ical effects due to the tectonic of the area, the intrusion of new magma and/or the mechanical
response of rocks to temperature or pore pressure changes. In the recent literature, thermo-
poro-elastic (TPE) inclusions were proposed as possible deformation sources that can explain
seismicity and displacements even in absence of the emplacement of new magma. In fact, TPE
inclusions allow us to compute the mechanical effects due to temperature and pore-pressure
changes brought by the arrival of hot and pressurized fluids permeating a closed volume. In the
present work, we improve the modellization of such deformation sources to include the effects
of viscoelasticity, which should be expected in high temperature and fluid saturated rocks due
to thermall y acti v ated and pressure-solution creep. The analytical thermo-poro-viscoelastic
(TPVE) solutions for a disc-shaped inclusion embedded in a uniform viscoelastic medium are
obtained through the correspondence principle. Our results can be useful to represent transient
effects of both deformation and stress fields that can occur in both volcanic and geothermal
areas, which would be difficult to explain otherwise. In fact, TPE inclusion models predict
that an increase of uplift occurs simultaneously with an increase of stress, and vice versa.
Instead, we shall see that a TPVE inclusion can provide an increase of uplift even in presence
of a strongly decreasing deviatoric stress. For this reason, a TPVE inclusion can be suitable
to represent a decrease in seismicity rate accompanied by an increase in surface uplift, as
observed, for example, during the ’82–’84 unrest phase of Campi Flegrei in Italy
Geometrical and physical properties of the 1982-84 deformation source at Campi Flegrei - Italy
Deformation of the ground surface in volcanic areas is generally recognized as a reliable indicator of unrest, possibly
resulting from the intrusion of fresh magma within the shallow rock layers. The intrusion process is usually
represented by a deformation source such as an ellipsoidal pressurized cavity, embedded within a homogeneous and
elastic half-space. Similar source models allow inferring the depth, the location and the (incremental) volume of the
intrusion, which are very important parameters for volcanic risk implications. However, assuming a homogeneous
and elastic rheology and, assigning a priori the shape and the mechanism of the source (within a very restricted
“library” of available solutions) may bias considerably the inference of source parameters. In complete generality,
any point source deformation, including overpressure sources, may be described in terms of a suitable moment
tensor, while the assumption of an overpressure source strongly restricts the variety of allowable moment tensors.
In particular, by assuming a pressurized cavity, we rule out the possibility that either shear failure may precede
magma emplacement (seismically induced intrusion) or may accompany it (mixed tensile and shear mode fracture).
Another possibility is that a pre-existent weakness plane may be chosen by the ascending magma (fracture
toughness heterogeneity). We perform joint inversion of levelling and EDM data (part of latter are unpublished),
collected during the 1982-84 unrest at Campi Flegrei caldera: a 43% misfit reduction is obtained for a general
moment source if the elastic heterogeneities computed from seismic tomography are accouted for. The inferred
source is at 5.2 km depth but cannot be interpreted as a simple pressurized cavity. Moreover, if mass conservation
is accounted for, magma emplaced within a shallow source must come from a (generally deeper) reservoir, which
is usually assumed to be deep enough to be simply neglected. At Campi Flegrei, seismic tomography indicates
that the “deep” magma source is rather shallow (at 7-8 km depth), so that its presence should be included in any
thorough attempt to source modeling. Taking into account a deflating source at 7.5 km depth (represented either as
a horizontal sill or as an isotropic cavity) and an inflating moment source, the fit of both levelling and EDM data
improves further (misfit reduction 80%), but still the best fitting moment source (at 5.5 km depth) falls outside the
range of pressurized ellipsoidal cavities. The shallow moment source may be decomposed in a tensile and a shear
dislocation. No clue is obtained that the shear and the tensile mechanisms should be located in different positions.
Our favourite interpretation is in terms of a crack opening in mixed tensile and shear mode, as would be provided
by fluid magma unwelding pre-stressed solid rock. Although this decomposition of the source is not unique, the
proposed solution is physically motivated by the minimum overpressure requirement. An important implication of
this new interpretation is that the magma emplaced in the shallow moment source during the 1982-84 unrest was
not added to already resident magma at the same position
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