Syn-eruptive deformation of Fernandina volcano

On 4 September 2017, Fernandina volcano in the Galapagos Islands began erupting from a circumferential fissure on the SW caldera rim. Yu Zhou (University of Oxford) and I processed Copernicus Sentinel-1 data to determine the extent of ground deformation in the build-up to the eruption. We found that the volcano inflated by ~17 cm inside the caldera over an ~2 year period before the eruption. This is consistent with estimates pre-eruptive deformation before past eruptions of Fernandina volcano.

This information was incorporated into the monitoring report published by Instituto Geofisico (Quito, Ecuador) during the eruption.