Paper written by prof. Morita and assistant Prof. Oikawa et al. has won the Research Paper Award of The Volcanological Society of Japan.

The selected research paper：Volume change of the magma reservoir relating to the 2011 Kirishima Shinmoe-dake eruption—Charging, discharging and recharging process inferred from GPS measurements.

Author: Shigeru Nakao, Yuichi Morita, Hiroshi Yakiwara, Jun Oikawa, Hideki Ueda, Hiroaki Takahashi, Yusaku Ohta, Takeshi Matsushima, and Masato Iguchi

Abstract: Using GPS data, we evaluate the volume change of the magma reservoir associated with the eruption of Kirishima Shinmoe-dake volcano, southern Kyushu, Japan, in 2011. Because ground deformation around Shinmoe-dake volcano is strongly affected not only by regional tectonic movement but also by inflation of Sakurajima volcano located approximately 30-40 km to the southwest, we first eliminate these unwanted contributions from the observed data to extract the signals from Shinmoe-dake volcano. Then, we estimate the source locations and volume change before, during, and after the highest eruptive activity occurring between January 26 and 31. Our model shows that the magma began to accumulate about one year prior to the sub-Plinian eruption, with approximately 65% of the accumulated magma being discharged during the peak of the eruptive activity, and that magma accumulation continued until the end of November 2011. An error analysis shows that the sources during the three periods indicated above are located in almost the same position: 5 km to the northwest of the summit at a depth of 8 km. The 95% confidence interval of the estimated source depth is from 7.5 to 13.7 km.