Do Tides Affect Volcanoes?

Everybody is familiar with ocean tides that cause the ocean level to go up and down, usually twice a day. We can go down to the beach and watch this tidal action along any coast in the world. On a global level, the ocean tides are actually waves whose crests are half a world apart and traveling from east to west. At most points on the globe, the tidal crest comes by about every 12.5 hours.

The engine driving this phenomenon is the gravitational attraction of, primarily, the moon, but also the sun. The earth completes one rotation every 24 hours, and the ocean tides can be imagined as a watery bulge that remains relatively stationary while the planet rotates inside. The biggest tides occur about every two weeks when the sun and moon are aligned (either full or new moon). Hence they are called the "fortnightly" tides.

Few realize that the solid earth also exhibits tidal behavior with bulges on opposite sides of the globe, also driven by the moon. At HVO, we can actually measure these tides with our tiltmeters and strainmeters. The earth's surface tilts up to 0.03 microradians in response to the apparent passage of the moon overhead. A tilt of one microradian is the tilt of a solid bar one kilometer (0.6 miles) long with one end raised by the thickness of a dime. To emphasize how small the tidal tilts are, our tiltmeters automatically alert us to the possibility of volcanic activity when tilts change more than 0.5 microradians in 5 minutes.

Who would have thought that the moon had that kind of power, not only to be able to cause the world's oceans to bulge, but also to squeeze terra firma twice a day? But it does, so it should not come as a complete shock that reputable scientists have suggested that these squeezings might influence whether a volcano will erupt or not.

The idea is that if a volcano is full of magma, the squeezing at the fortnightly tidal maximum might be just enough to overcome the resistance of the crust, push magma out, and get an eruption going. Once started, the eruption would continue on its own.

More than 25 years ago, a pair of earth scientists compared the records for 680 eruptions that occurred since 1900 and found that "the probability of an eruption is greatest at times of maximum tidal amplitude." In plainer language, volcanoes are more likely to erupt at the fortnightly (or 14-day) "high" tide.

A specific look at 52 Hawaiian eruptions since January 1832 shows the same sort of pattern. "Nearly twice as many eruptions have occurred nearer fortnightly tidal maximum than tidal minimum." HVO scientists have noted that the Pu'u 'O'o fountaining episodes each occurred remarkably close to fortnightly tidal maximums and that the first set of eruption pauses in 1990 (periods where the eruption turned off for up to a few days) occurred remarkably close to fortnightly tidal minimums.

Great! Now let's start predicting eruptions based only on this information. The fortnightly tidal maximum occurs at full and new moons, every 14 or so days. The next tidal maximum will be the new moon on November 15 - will Mauna Loa erupt then? Almost certainly not.

Although this is a fascinating correlation, there are just too many tidal maximums and too many volcanoes to base predictions on tidal cycle alone. In the Hawai'i example of 52 eruptions since January 1832, there have been nearly 3,900 tidal maximums, of which roughly 3,850 of them went by without causing an eruption. Statistically, this is about a one percent chance that any tidal maximum will affect the start of an eruption.

The correlation is more important as a clue to how volcanoes work. The effect of the tides suggests that a volcano can remain in a state of near eruption for a period of time before some threshold is exceeded and an eruption starts. There are probably many possible mechanisms for exceeding that threshold - the lunar tides are but one.


Information Courtesy:
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Volcano Watch, November 8, 2001, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Website, 2002

The gravitational attraction of the Sun and the Moon produce the familiar ocean tides and the less familiar earth tides. Why are volcanologists interested in earth tides? Earth tides are cyclical, small, and slow ground movements that we use to calibrate and test sensitive volcano deformation- monitoring instruments. They might also trigger volcanic events.

The tides are slight bulges of the ocean's or Earth's surface that face the Moon and the Sun as the Earth rotates on its axis. There are actually two lunar and two solar tidal bulges, one on the closest and the other on the farthest side of the Earth. The lunar bulges are a little more than twice the height of the solar bulges. At new and full moon, the Sun and the Moon are aligned, and the lunar and the solar bulges add together for the greatest tidal range. At first- and third-quarter phases of the moon, lunar and solar tides are in opposition, and the tidal range is at a minimum. The tides go through one full cycle (a high and low tide) about once every 12 hours and one full cycle of maximum height (a spring and neap tide) about once every 14 days.

When there is a large earthquake or when you are near a source of volcanic tremor, you can feel the ground move. At other times volcanic ground movements are so small or slow that they can only be measured by seismometers, tiltmeters, strainmeters, or other sensitive geophysical sensors. Movements of magma occur over periods from minutes to days, outside the detection range of most seismometers.

The slow ground movements associated with magma moving underground can be detected with tiltmeters and strainmeters. We install these instruments deep in the ground to isolate them from the daily and yearly heating and cooling of the ground. How do we test whether they are working?

The periods of the earth tides are in the same range as those associated with magma movements, and they provide a critical test for the response of the deformation instruments. The earth tides are quite small and can only be measured with the most sensitive instruments, such as those deployed by HVO.

The forces that produce the tides are a tiny fraction of the forces that cause earthquakes and eruptions. Even though the forces are small, they can trigger an event. Scientists have found no correlation between the tides and earthquakes. Correlations between the tides and eruptions, however, have been identified.

Most people are not even aware that there are earth tides. These slow and rhythmic undulations of the Earth's surface are used by volcanologists to calibrate and test sensitive deformation- monitoring instruments. They can also trigger volcanic eruptions.


Information Courtesy:
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Volcano Watch, May 28, 1998, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Website, 2002