Increment in the volcanic unrest and number of eruptions after the 2012 large earthquakes sequence in Central America.

Understanding the relationship cause/effect between tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is a striking topic in Earth Sciences. Volcanoes erupt with variable reaction times as a consequence of the impact of seismic waves (i.e. dynamic stress) and changes in the stress field (i.e. static stress).In2012, three large(Mw≥7.3)subductionearthquakes struck Central Americawithin a period of 10 weeks;subsequently, some volcanoesin the regionerupted a few days after, whileotherstook months or even years to erupt. Here, we show thatthese threeearthquakes contributed to the increase in the number of volcanic eruptionsduring the 7 years that followed these seismic events. We found that onlythosevolcanoes that were already in a critical state ofunrest eventually erupted, which indicates that the earthquakes only prompted the eruptions. Therefore, we recommend the permanent monitoring of active volcanoes toreveal which are more susceptible to culminate into eruption in the aftermath of the next large-magnitude earthquake hits a region.Funding was provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Istitute Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV).Peer reviewe