ALBERT

Description: Volcanic crisis exercises are usually run to test response capabilities, communication protocols, and decision-making procedures by agencies with responsibilities to cope with scenarios of volcanic unrest with inherent uncertainty, such as volcano observatories and/or civil protection authorities. During the last decades, the use of questionnaires has been increased to evaluate people’s knowledge on volcanic hazards and their perception of risk, to better understand their preparedness to respond to emergency measures plans. In this paper, we present a study carried out within the European Network of Observatories and Research Infrastructures for Volcanology project (EUROVOLC) focused on extracting information on the experience gained during volcanic-crisis exercises by the project’s participants and beyond. An open-ended question questionnaire was firstly distributed for a survey within the project community. Through the results obtained, we developed a user-friendly online multi-choice questionnaire that was submitted to the volcanological communities within and outside EUROVOLC. Analyzing the answers to the online questionnaire, we extracted a prototype checklist for guiding the design of such exercises in the future. Our results confirm this type of survey as a very useful tool for gathering information on participants’ experience and knowledge, able to understand which data and information may be useful when designing exercises for scientists, emergency managers and decision makers. In particular, the main lessons learnt regard the need i) to increase training activities involving people exposed to volcanic hazards and media, ii) to improve external communication tools (between players and public/media), equipment and protocols and iii) to better define decision-makers’ needs.

Description: Published

Description: 107850

Description: OSV4: Preparazione alle crisi vulcaniche

Description: JCR Journal

Description: Over the past decades, significant efforts have been made to understand the nature, dynamics and evolution of volcanic systems. In parallel, the continuous demographic expansion and extensive urbanization of volcanic areas have increased the exposure of our society to these natural phenomena. This increases the need to improve our capacities to accurately assess projected volcanic hazards and their potential socioeconomic and environmental impact, and Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands are no exception. More than a hundred volcanoes have been identified in Antarctica, some of which are entirely buried beneath the ice sheet and others as submarine volcanoes. Of these, at least eight large (basal diameters 〉 c. 20-30 km) volcanoes are known to be active and pose a considerable threat to scientific and ever-increasing tourism activities being carried out in the region. Despite the scientific and socioeconomic interest, many aspects of the past volcanic activity and magmatic processes in Antarctica, and current volcanic hazards and risks, remain unknown. Moreover, many of Antarctica’s volcanoes preserve a remarkable history of the eruptive environment, from which multiple parameters of past configurations of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) can be deduced. Given the critical role that the AIS plays in regulating Earth’s climate, Antarctica’s volcanoes therefore can be regarded as the ground truth for current models of past climates derived from modelling and studies of marine sediments. Here, we provide a succinct overview of the evolution of volcanism and magmatism in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic region over the past 200 million years. Then, we briefly review the current state of knowledge of the most crucial aspects regarding Antarctica’s volcanic and magmatic processes, and the contributions volcanic studies have made to our understanding of ice sheet history and evolution, geothermal heat flow, as well as present-day and future volcanic hazard and risk. A principal objective is to highlight the problems and critical limitations of the current state of knowledge and to provide suggestions for future potential directions of volcanic-driven investigations in Antarctica. Finally, we also discuss and assess the importance and scope of education and outreach activities specifically relating to Antarctic volcanism, and within the context of broader polar sciences.

Description: Published

Description: 107941

Description: OSV2: Complessità dei processi vulcanici: approcci multidisciplinari e multiparametrici

Description: JCR Journal