A seismological large-N multisensor experiment to study the magma transfer of intracontinental volcanic fields: The example of the Eifel, Germany

The understanding of the magma system beneath intracontinental volcanic fields depends critically on our ability to resolve small-sized anomalies distributed over large areas of hundreds of kilometres. Magmatic reservoirs co-exist at different depths in the upper mantle and crust and may consist of extensive zones of crystal mush, swarms of sills and dikes of different ages and states, pore space saturated by volatiles or melt, or larger-volume, differentiated magma. Passive seismological experiments with a large number of sensors deployed with small interstation spacings, combining different types of sensors and fibre-optic sensor technology, have great promise for addressing the resolution to capture the distributed magmatic system. We report on a one-year, large-N experiment in the Quaternary volcanic fields of the Eifel, Germany, where more than 494 seismic stations were deployed and combined with a 64 kmlong DAS cable and permanent stations. A cloud-based, open-source GIS system was implemented to address logistical challenges and ensure data quality combined with seismological analysis and visualisation tools. We present initial results to test the potential of such an extensive waveform database and automated processing for locating small earthquakes and imaging crustal and upper mantle anomalies using techniques such as ambient noise cross-correlation, receiver functions, and SKS splitting.