Earthquake Focal Mechanisms as a Stress Meter of Active Volcanoes

The orientation of faulting associated with volcano-tectonic earthquakes follows the stress field there, as tectonic earthquakes. Therefore, changes volcanic activity change fault orientations or focal mechanisms. Zhan et al. (2022; https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL097958) observed temporal mechanisms unrest. They decomposed into ambient differential stress, volcano loading, and by dike intrusion; they then evaluated their relative contributions to constrain magnitude that is consistent observation. This study indicates can be used monitor state an active volcano. Combining other geophysical observables, such seismic anisotropy geodetic measurements, will give us more precise assessments state, leading better forecasts activity.