Seismic Refraction Survey around Bandai Volcano by Using a Marine Airgun

Abstract

A seismic refraction experment was carried out around the Bandai volcanic area, the southern part of the Tohoku District, by using a large capacity (9 liter air chamber) marine airgun. Shallow crustal structure (down to about a 4km depth) obtained along the 30km-length profile shows the swelling of the second layer with P-wave velocity more than about 4.0km/s just beneath Bandai volcano in parallel to the surface topography. The swelling of the second layer by about 1km is in good agreement with that of the basement estimated from the Bouguer anomaly.
Seismic signals from the surrounding telemetered stations of Tohoku University at epicentral distances from 10km to 230km, are continuously recorded during the airgun experiments. In the stacked records we can detect the clear first P arrivals from the airgun shots at the stations with distances ranging up to 150km, which shows the usefullness of the marine airgun for studying the crustal structure on land. Anomalously late P arrivals or unclear P arrivals are observed for the ray paths which cross active volcanoes. This result and the shallow crustal structure obtained along the refraction profile suggest the existence of the anomalous zone beneath Bandai volcano at depths deeper than about 4km.