Ground Deformation Between 2002 and 2013 from InSAR Observations

Ground deformation is one of the main geophysical methods for volcano monitoring. Surface deformation patterns can provide important insights into the structure, plumbing system, and state of restless volcanoes. Copahue volcano is one of the most active eruptive centers in Argentina, and a major risk factor for the nearby towns of Caviahue and Copahue. Historic eruptive activity involved low intensity phreatic and phreatomagmatic events in 1992, 1995 and 2000. A new eruptive cycle is ongoing since June 2012, with several phreatic explosions and one phreatomagmatic—magmatic eruption on December 22nd, 2012. In this work, the Small Baseline Subsets (SBAS) DInSAR-based technique is successfully applied to compute surface displacements using the ENVISAT ASAR radar imagery during quiescent and pre-eruptive periods. Our purpose is to investigate possible sources of ground deformation to better understand the system behavior. Analytical models are used to interpret geodetic data and to constrain the parameters that characterize the source responsible for the observed deformation.