Initial development of continuous volcano monitoring system

This work focuses on volcano monitoring on Mt. Aso (Aso caldera), one of the largest volcanoes located in central Kyushu, southwest Japan. Aso caldera was significantly impacted by the Kumamoto earthquake, which occurred on April 16, 2016. Many earthquakes were triggered in the northern part of Aso caldera after the mainshock in April 2016. Until recently, Aso caldera has remained active. To continuously monitor the seismic activity, we have constructed a dense seismometer network within the Aso caldera. The initial results show that the earthquakes within our network are mostly distributed in the northwest to northeast direction of Aso caldera, which is consistent with the previous data. Our result highlights the importance of continuous seismic monitoring to characterize recent seismic activity in a volcanic region which can be useful for geohazard and risk mitigation.