The relationship between tectonic earthquakes and
volcanoes is one of the most striking, but yet less well-understood topics in
earth sciences, due to the lack of observational data. When this interaction
occurs, volcanoes may react in the short term (hours to days) to long term
(months to decades), causing an eruption, which suggests that what happens
inside the volcano to trigger this new eruption needs time. In 2012, three
large earthquakes struck Central America, and some volcanoes erupted days after,
while others took erupted months to years after the earthquakes to enter into an
eruption. This poses to the question: was the eruption triggered by the
earthquakes? Here I show that the large earthquakes contributed to the
increment in the number of volcanic eruptions in the region. I found that only
volcanoes were already undergoing a certain degree of unrest and without large
eruptions previous to the large tectonic earthquakes erupted, thus suggesting
that the volcanoes were nearly ready to erupt and that the earthquakes helped,
but not necessarily caused the volcanic eruptions. The present research can become
a tool for forecasting volcanic activity when a large earthquake hits a region
if the volcanic activity is previously well monitored and to communicate and
prepare the population and to reduce the volcanic risk if the protocols are
well established.
Keywords: Earthquake and volcano interaction, volcanic
eruptions, volcanic unrest, stress, Monte Carlo method.