Villarrica volcano in Chile regularly experiences mild to moderate explosive activity, open-vent degassing, and hosts an active lava lake, making it the most active volcano in Chile’s Southern Volcanic Zone. Villarrica’s most recent paroxysmal eruption happened in 2015 (VEI 2-3) and renewed activity has been observed since late 2022. We collected a suite of geophysical data at Villarrica in 2020 and 2022. For the first time in the Southern Andes Volcanic zone, a relative gravimeter (Scintrex CG6) was installed semi-permanently at the summit of the volcano, and recorded data continuously from February to August 2020 and from January to March 2022. Simultaneously, we deployed a network of 6 broadband seismometers, an array of 5 infrasound sensors, and a MultiGAS station near the summit crater. The analysis of this multidisciplinary dataset will provide insight into the magma dynamics at Villarrica over a range of time scales and into the short-term signals precursory to volcanic explosions.

Collaborators: Diana Roman (Carnegie Science), Kathleen McKee (Vanderbilt University), Ivo Fustos (Universidad de la Frontera, Chile), Loreto Córdova (OVDAS, SERNAGEOMIN, Chile), Tara Shreve (now at Utah Geological Survey).

Status: ongoing.