Coupled Neighbouring Volcanoes: Exploring Eruption Controls and Transitions

Objective

Volcanic eruptions are among the most disruptive natural hazards, yet our ability to forecast them is limited by incomplete knowledge of how magma is stored, evolves, and is transported within the crust. Recent advances reveal that subduction-zone volcanoes are fed by vertically and sometimes laterally extensive magmatic systems. However, the extent to which neighbouring volcanoes exchange magma and influence each other’s activity remains poorly understood, and current hazard models rarely consider multi-volcano interactions. CONNECT (Coupled Neighbouring Volcanoes: Exploring Eruption Controls and Transitions) will investigate magmatic connectivity between Chaitén and Michinmahuida volcanoes in southern Chile, two adjacent volcanic centres with contrasting eruption histories. The project’s primary objective is to test whether these volcanoes share magmatic pathways, to determine how such connections control eruption style and frequency, and to evaluate their implications for volcanic hazards. To achieve this, CONNECT integrates three complementary approaches: geophysical imaging (magnetotellurics) to characterise subsurface conductivity; petrology to reconstruct storage conditions and eruption triggers across millennial timescales; and geochemical–isotopic tracers to fingerprint magma sources and mixing processes. Combining these datasets will produce the first high-resolution, multi-method model of inter-volcano connectivity in an active subduction arc. The resulting integrated framework will improve understanding of lateral and vertical magma transport, inform multi-volcano hazard assessments, and provide a transferable methodology applicable to multi-volcano systems worldwide, advancing both eruption forecasting and risk mitigation.