Citation

Jaxybulatov K, Shapiro NM, Koulakov I, Mordret A, Landès M, Sens-Schönfelder C. Science 2014; 346(6209): 617-619.

Affiliation

GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg 14473 Potsdam, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science)

DOI

10.1126/science.1258582

PMID

25359969

Abstract

An understanding of the formation of large magmatic reservoirs is a key issue for the evaluation of possible strong volcanic eruptions in the future. We estimated the size and level of maturity of one of the largest volcanic reservoirs, based on radial seismic anisotropy. We used ambient-noise seismic tomography below the Toba caldera (in northern Sumatra) to observe the anisotropy that we interpret as the expression of a fine-scale layering caused by the presence of many partially molten sills in the crust below 7 kilometers. This result demonstrates that the magmatic reservoirs of present (non-eroded) supervolcanoes can be formed as large sill complexes and supports the concept of the long-term incremental evolution of magma bodies that lead to the largest volcanic eruptions.

Language: en