Shallow seismicity at Montagne Pelée volcano,Martinique, Lesser Antilles

Continuous seismic monitoring at Martinique since the 1902 eruption of the Montagne Pelée volcano did not detect local earthquakes for the first 70 years. For the only eruption which occurred in this time span in 1929 the seismograph was 20 km away and of a standard type, not particularly suited for the detection of small-scale local seismicity. Improvement of the monitoring array over the last 15 years with the installation of sensors on the volcano itself allowed the detection of signals of local origin which were interpreted as being due to surface sources, such as rockfalls and landslides. Since December 1985 seismic sources in the volcano itself, i.e. small earthquakes at shallow depth, were identified and located with the aid of a temporary upgrading of the array close to these weak sources. Such an onset of local seismicity could not have been detected with previous seismic equipment; such episodes of seismicity in the volcano might have occurred in the past, apparently quiescent history of the volcano as the reinterpretation of seismograms of some events in 1976 would indicate, without evolving to more important volcanic phenomena. For seismographs on volcanoes the constant upgrading of observation capabilities is certainly perferred to a strict continuity of standard observations.