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Abstract:
The Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group is a cluster of the world's most active subduction volcanoes, situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. The volcanoes lie in an unusual off‐arc position within the Central Kamchatka Depression (CKD), a large sedimentary basin whose origin is not fully understood. Many gaps also remain in the knowledge of the crustal magmatic plumbing system of these volcanoes. We conducted an ambient noise surface wave tomography, to image the 3‐D shear wave velocity structure of the Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group and CKD within the surrounding region. Vertical component cross correlations of the continuous seismic noise are used to measure interstation Rayleigh wave group and phase traveltimes. We perform a two‐step surface wave tomography to model the 3‐D Vsv velocity structure. For each inversion stage we use a transdimensional Bayesian Monte Carlo approach, with coupled uncertainty propagation. This ensures that our model provides a reliable 3‐D velocity image of the upper 15 km of the crust, as well as a robust assessment of the uncertainty in the observed structure. Beneath the active volcanoes, we image small slow velocity anomalies at depths of 2–5 km but find no evidence for magma storage regions deeper than 5 km—noting the 15 km depth limit of the model. We also map two clearly defined sedimentary layers within the CKD, revealing an extensive 8 km deep sedimentary accumulation. This volume of sediments is consistent with the possibility that the CKD was formed as an Eocene‐Pliocene fore‐arc regime, rather than by recent (<2 Ma) back‐arc extension.
