Whatever the specific circumstances for an island, the transition from silent slip to abrupt collapse would involve a sudden acceleration of the mobile slope. In the worst case, this acceleration would proceed immediately to breakneck velocities, leaving no chance for early detection and warning. In the best case, the acceleration would occur in fits and starts, in a cascade of silent earthquakes slowly escalating into regular earthquakes, and then on to catastrophe. A continuous GPS network could easily detect this fitful acceleration, well before ground-shaking earthquakes began to occur and, with luck, in plenty of time for a useful tsunami warning.

If the collapse were big enough, however, a few hours’ or even days’ warning might come as little comfort because it would be so difficult at that point to evacuate everyone. This problem raises the question of whether authorities might ever implement preventive measures. The problem of stabilizing the teetering flanks of oceanic volcanoes is solvable—in principle. In practice, however, the effort required would be immense. Consider simple brute force. If enough rock were removed from the upper reaches of an unstable volcanic flank, then the gravitational potential energy that is driving the system toward collapse would disappear for at least several hundred thousand years. A second possible method—lowering an unstable flank slowly through a series of small earthquakes—would be much cheaper but fraught with geologic unknowns and potential dangers. To do so, scientists could conceivably harness as a tool to prevent collapse the very thing that may be currently driving silent earthquakes on Kilauea.

Nine days before the most recent silent earthquake on Kilauea, a torrential rainstorm dropped nearly a meter of water on the volcano in less than 36 hours. Geologists have long known that water leaking into faults can trigger earthquakes, and nine days is about the same amount of time that they estimate it takes water to work its way down through cracks and pores in Kilauea’s fractured basaltic rock to a depth of five kilometers— where the silent earthquake occurred. My colleagues and I suspect that the burden of the overlying rock pressurized the rainwater, forcing the sides of the fault apart and making it much easier for them to slip past each other.

This discovery lends credence to the controversial idea of forcefully injecting water or steam into faults at the base of an unstable flank to trigger the stress-relieving earthquakes needed to let it down slowly. This kind of human-induced slip happens at very small scales all the time at geothermal plants and other locations where water is pumped into the earth.

But when it comes to volcanoes, the extreme difficulty lies in putting the right amount of fluid in the right place so as not to inadvertently generate the very collapse that is meant to be avoided. Some geophysicists considered this strategy as a way to relieve stress along California’s infamous San Andreas fault, but they ultimately abandoned the idea for fear that it would create more problems than it would solve.

Wedges of Water
APART FROM CALLING attention to the phenomenon of catastrophic collapse of the flank of a volcano, the discovery of silent earthquakes is forcing scientists to reconsider various aspects of fault motion— including seismic hazard assessments. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, investigators have observed many silent earthquakes along the enormous Cascadia fault zone between the North American plate and the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. One curious feature of these silent earthquakes is that they happen at regular intervals—so regular, in fact, that scientists are now predicting their occurrence successfully.

1 Comments

1. 1. Bearbear 07:17 AM 9/17/08

   I have a question about this statement copied from your article,
   "Geologists have long known that water leaking into faults can trigger earthquakes, and nine days is about the same amount of time that they estimate it takes water to work its way down through cracks and pores in Kilauea’s fractured basaltic rock to a depth of five kilometers— where the silent earthquake occurred. "
   If the rocks are fractured already wouldn't the sea have penetrated the rocks at or below sea level? For every 33 feet of depth the're another atmosphere of pressure added, kind of like being in a leaking submarine where a whole bunch of rivets have let go; the water should already be coming in almost everywhere.
   Wouldn't this have a greater effect than a meter of rinwater percollating through the rocks?
   thanks. Ray

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