scholarly journals Characteristics of volcanic tremor accompanying the September 24th, 1986 explosive eruption of Mt. Etna (Italy)

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gresta ◽  
G. Lombardo ◽  
R. Cristofolini

Features of the volcanic tremor recorded before, during and after the eruptive event which occurred at Mt. Etna on September 24th 1986, are described. The whole eruption was particularly short in time (about eight hours) and characterized by an extremely violent explosive activity with lava fountains a few hundred meters high. As the complete record of the seismic signals generated during the whole eruptive episode was available, a detailed spectral analysis of the volcanic tremor recorded at four stations, located at increasing distance from the summit of the volcano, was carried out. Fourier analysis, that was performed using temporal windows of about 11 min in duration, pointed to some large fluctuations of the overall spectral amplitude, as well as some frequency variations of the dominant spectral peaks. The ratio of the overall spectral amplitude recorded at the highest station and at the peripheral ones, was calculated in the two spectral bands 1.0-2.5 and 2.6-6.0 Hz, respectively. The significant contribution of energy at low frequency values supports the hypothesis of a subvertical planar source, which was active during the paroxysmal stage of the eruption. Such results are also supported by the analysis of the attenuation function of the spectral amplitude.

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Lombardo ◽  
G Coco ◽  
M. Corrao ◽  
S. Gresta

The study of the spectral features of volcanic tremor and low frequency events (l.f.e.) recorded before and during the preliminary phases of the powerful 1991-1993 eruption of Mt. Etna is briefly described. Significant modifications were observed in the spectral signature of l.f.e. before the onset of the eruptive event, as well as in the temporal distribution of the volcanic tremor dominant frequencies. We interpret both l.f.e. and tremor changes in terms of a spatial modification of the source, as the paroxysmal eruptive activity is approaching. Such findings also appear quite interesting for the identification of markers of the modifications which some seismic events of the volcano undergo in the early stages heading the occurrence of an eruption.


1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Alparone ◽  
S. Gresta

A short period seismic array setting at Mt. Etna symmetrically in regard to the fracture of the 1991-1993 eruption allowed an analysis of low frequency events which occurred in the first phase of the mentioned eruption. We recorded about 50 events, 19 of them belong to a family. They show very low amplitude values and spectral peaks ranging 0.5-4.5 Hz. The evidence of this family of events shows how the process driving the dynamics of the fluid in the volcano is often the same.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Van den Braembussche ◽  
H. Malys

A lumped parameter model to predict the high frequency pressure oscillations observed in a water brake dynamometer is presented. It explains how the measured low frequency variations of the torque are a consequence of the variation in amplitude of the high frequency flow oscillations. Based on this model, geometrical modifications were defined, aiming to suppress the oscillations while maintaining mechanical integrity of the device. An experimental verification demonstrated the validity of the model and showed a very stable operation of the modified dynamometer even at very low torque.


2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Lumpkin ◽  
Semyon A. Grodsky ◽  
Luca Centurioni ◽  
Marie-Helene Rio ◽  
James A. Carton ◽  
...  

Abstract Satellite-tracked drifting buoys of the Global Drifter Program have drogues, centered at 15-m depth, to minimize direct wind forcing and Stokes drift. Drogue presence has historically been determined from submergence or tether strain records. However, recent studies have revealed that a significant fraction of drifters believed to be drogued have actually lost their drogues, a problem that peaked in the mid-2000s before the majority of drifters in the global array switched from submergence to tether strain sensors. In this study, a methodology is applied to the data to automatically reanalyze drogue presence based on anomalous downwind ageostrophic motion. Results indicate that the downwind slip of undrogued drifters is approximately 50% higher than previously believed. The reanalyzed results no longer exhibit the dramatic and spurious interannual variations seen in the original data. These results, along with information from submergence/tether strain and transmission frequency variations, are now being used to conduct a systematic manual reevaluation of drogue presence for each drifter in the post-1992 dataset.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Klaasen ◽  
Patrick Paitz ◽  
Jan Dettmer ◽  
Andreas Fichtner

<p>We present one of the first applications of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in a volcanic environment. The goals are twofold: First, we want to examine the feasibility of DAS in such a remote and extreme environment, and second, we search for active volcanic signals of Mount Meager in British Columbia (Canada). </p><p>The Mount Meager massif is an active volcanic complex that is estimated to have the largest geothermal potential in Canada and caused its largest recorded landslide in 2010. We installed a 3-km long fibre-optic cable at 2000 m elevation that crosses the ridge of Mount Meager and traverses the uppermost part of a glacier, yielding continuous measurements from 19 September to 17 October 2019.</p><p>We identify ~30 low-frequency (0.01-1 Hz) and 3000 high-frequency (5-45 Hz) events. The low-frequency events are not correlated with microseismic ocean or atmospheric noise sources and volcanic tremor remains a plausible origin. The frequency-power distribution of the high-frequency events indicates a natural origin, and beamforming on these events reveals distinct event clusters, predominantly in the direction of the main peaks of the volcanic complex. Numerical examples show that we can apply conventional beamforming to the data, and that the results are improved by taking the signal-to-noise ratio of individual channels into account.</p><p>The increased data quantity of DAS can outweigh the limitations due to the lower quality of individual channels in these hazardous and remote environments. We conclude that DAS is a promising tool in this setting that warrants further development.</p>


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yair De-Leon ◽  
Nathan Paldor

Abstract. Using 20 years of accurately calibrated, high resolution, observations of Sea Surface Height Anomalies (SSHA) by satellite ‎borne altimeters we show that in the Indian Ocean south of the Australian coast the low frequency variations of SSHA are ‎dominated by westward propagating, trapped, i.e. non-harmonic, planetary waves. Our results demonstrate that the ‎meridional-dependent amplitudes of the SSHA are large only within a few degrees of latitude next to the South-Australian ‎coast while farther in the ocean they are uniformly small. This meridional variation of the SSHA signal is typical of the ‎amplitude structure in the trapped wave theory. The westward propagation speed of the SSHA signals is analyzed by ‎employing three different methods of estimation. Each one of these methods yields speed estimates that can vary widely ‎between adjacent latitudes but the combination of at least two of the three methods yields much smoother variation. The ‎estimates obtained in this manner show that the observed phase speeds at different latitudes exceed the phase speeds of ‎harmonic Rossby (Planetary) waves by 140 % to 200 %. In contrast, the theory of trapped Rossby (Planetary) waves in a ‎domain bounded by a wall on its equatorward side yields phase speeds that approximate more closely the observed phase ‎speeds.‎


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 325-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Andrews ◽  
A. E. Jennings

Abstract. In the area of Denmark Strait (~66° N), the two modes of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Arctic Oscillation (AO) are expressed in changes of the northward flux of Atlantic water and the southward advection of polar water in the East Iceland current. Proxies from marine cores along an environmental gradient from extensive to little or no drift ice, capture low frequency variations over the last 2000 cal yr BP. Key proxies are the weight% of calcite, a measure of surface water stratification and nutrient supply, the weight% of quartz, a measure of drift ice transport, and grain size. Records from Nansen and Kangerlussuaq fjords show variable ice-rafted debris (IRD) records but have distinct mineralogy associated with differences in the fjord catchment bedrock. A comparison between cores on either side of the Denmark Strait (MD99-2322 and MD99-2269) show a remarkable millennial-scale similarity in the trends of the weight% of calcite with a trough reached during the Little Ice Age. However, the quartz records from these two sites are quite different. The calcite records from the Denmark Strait parallel the 2000 yr Arctic summer-temperature reconstructions; analysis of the detrended calcite and quartz data reveal significant multi-decadal–century periodicities superimposed on a major environmental shift occurring ca. 1450 AD.


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