Review of Microgravity Observations at Mt. Etna: A Powerful Tool to Monitor and Study Active Volcanoes

Author(s):  
Daniele Carbone ◽  
Filippo Greco
Keyword(s):  
Mt Etna ◽  
Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Terray ◽  
Laurent Royer ◽  
David Sarramia ◽  
Cyrille Achard ◽  
Etienne Bourdeau ◽  
...  

While radon in soil gases has been identified for decades as a potential precursor of volcanic eruptions, there has been a recent interest for monitoring radon in air on active volcanoes. We present here the first network of outdoor air radon sensors that was installed successfully on Mt. Etna volcano, Sicily, Italy in September 2019. Small radon sensors designed for workers and home dosimetry were tropicalized in order to be operated continuously in harsh volcanic conditions with an autonomy of several months. Two stations have been installed on the south flank of the volcano at ~3000 m of elevation. A private network has been deployed in order to transfer the measurements from the stations directly to a server located in France, using a low-power wide-area transmission technology from Internet of Things (IoT) called LoRaWAN. Data finally feed a data lake, allowing flexibility in data management and sharing. A first analysis of the radon datasets confirms previous observations, while adding temporal information never accessed before. The observed performances confirm IoT solutions are very adapted to active volcano monitoring in terms of range, autonomy, and data loss.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Casetta ◽  
Pier Paolo Giacomoni ◽  
Nicolò Nardini ◽  
Massimo Coltorti

<p>Ancient volcano-plutonic complexes can record the evolution of single- or multi-pulse plumbing systems and thus can be used as proxy to investigate the magma dynamics beneath active volcanoes. The exceptional state of conservation of the Middle Triassic Cima Pape complex (Dolomitic Area, Southern Alps) makes it an ideal snapshot of a ~238 Ma old feeding system of a dominantly effusive volcano. It is composed of a 50 to 300 metres thick gabbroic to monzodioritic sill intruded in the sedimentary cover and overlaid by its volcanic counterpart, made up of basaltic to trachyandesitic lavas and pillow breccias. A detailed investigation of the textural and compositional features of clinopyroxene phenocrysts in the volcanites revealed that complex dynamic processes took place in the feeding system beneath the Cima Pape “volcano”. Although some crystals have normal homogeneous or simple-zoned texture, with Mg# [MgO/(MgO+FeO<sub>tot</sub>) mol%] ranging between 71 and 77 (type 1 clinopyroxene), the great majority of them is typified by a peculiar texture, characterized by the occurrence of intermediate high-Mg# (80-84, up to 90), high-Cr<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> (up to 1.0 wt%) and low-TiO<sub>2</sub> (down to 0.1 wt%) bands (type 2 clinopyroxene). These overgrowths, crystallized between low-Mg# cores and rims, likely indicate that the feeding system was affected by frequent mixing between mafic inputs and differentiated batches. An overview of the main textural/geochemical features of clinopyroxene in effusive and intrusive products was put forward in the present study to reconstruct the main chemico-physical parameters and evolution of the feeding systems beneath the Middle Triassic volcanoes of the Dolomitic Area. Afterwards, these results will be used to advance some speculations about the processes recorded by clinopyroxene crystals in lava flows from active volcanoes, such as Stromboli and/or Mt. Etna.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 164 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Carbone ◽  
Filippo Greco
Keyword(s):  
Mt Etna ◽  

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. La Delfa ◽  
F. Vizzini ◽  
G. Patanè
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 176 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. Kempton ◽  
A. Spence ◽  
H. Downes ◽  
J. Blichert-Toft ◽  
J. G. Bryce ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4630
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bonforte ◽  
Flavio Cannavò ◽  
Salvatore Gambino ◽  
Francesco Guglielmino

We propose a multi-temporal-scale analysis of ground deformation data using both high-rate tilt and GNSS measurements and the DInSAR and daily GNSS solutions in order to investigate a sequence of four paroxysmal episodes of the Voragine crater occurring in December 2015 at Mt. Etna (Italy). The analysis aimed at inferring the magma sources feeding a sequence of very violent eruptions, in order to understand the dynamics and to image the shallow feeding system of the volcano that enabled such a rapid magma accumulation and discharge. The high-rate data allowed us to constrain the sources responsible for the fast and violent dynamics of each paroxysm, while the cumulated deformation measured by DInSAR and daily GNSS solutions, over a period of 12 days encompassing the entire eruptive sequence, also showed the deeper part of the source involved in the considered period, where magma was stored. We defined the dynamics and rates of the magma transfer, with a middle-depth storage of gas-rich magma that charges, more or less continuously, a shallower level where magma stops temporarily, accumulating pressure due to the gas exsolution. This machine-gun-like mechanism could represent a general conceptual model for similar events at Etna and at all volcanoes.


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