ALBERT

Description: Nel luglio 2006, nell’ambito della campagna di ricerche PRO.ME.TH.E.US (PROgram of Mediterranean Exploration for THermal Energy Use), l’OBS Lab dell’Osservatorio Geofisico di Gibilmanna dell’INGVCNT, ha deposto un prototipo di OBS/H sulla sommità del vulcano sottomarino Marsili (39° 16,383’ lat. Nord, 14° 23,588’ long. Est.) alla profondità di 790 m (D’Anna et alii, 2007); lo strumento ha registrato l’attività sismica del vulcano dal 12 al 21 luglio 2006. L’OBS/H era equipaggiato con un sismometro Trillium 40s della Nanometrics e un idrofono OAS E-2PD. La digitalizzazione è stata effettuata da un convertitore A/D a 21 bit a quattro canali (SEND Geolon MLS) e i segnali sono stati campionati ad una frequenza di 200 c/s (D’Anna et alii, 2007).In una prima fase di studio D’Alessandro et alii (2006) hanno individuato, nel segnale acquisito, la presenza di una elevata attività sismica (oltre 1000 eventi registrati in 9 giorni) legata probabilmente all’attività del vulcano Marsili oltre a eventi tettonici e forme d’onda transitorie di origine non sismica. In base ad analisi spettrali non parametriche, l’attività registrata era stata suddivisa in: eventi noti in letteratura come VT-B (Volcanic-Tectonic event, type B) che si manifestano in sciami, eventi ad alta frequenza legati a probabile attività idrotermale ed eventi classificabili come “Tornillo” o LPE (Long- Period Event) probabilmente generati da fenomeni di risonanza legati ad attività magmatica (Chouet, 1996). Al fine di caratterizzare con idonei parametri quantitativi i segnali appartenenti ai gruppi individuati e fare delle ipotesi sui diversi meccanismi sorgente, sono state successivamente eseguite analisi spettrali parametriche e di polarizzazione, che sono oggetto di questo lavoro. Rispetto all’analisi di Fourier, l’analisi spettrale parametrica permette di ottenere una migliore risoluzione, quando il segnale da analizzare presenta breve durata. Noi abbiamo applicato tale tipo di analisi agli eventi classificabili come Tornillo. Tali eventi sono generalmente quasi-monocromatici e presentano un inizio di tipo impulsivo, seguito da un lento e graduale decadimento in ampiezza. La descrizione delle frequenze di oscillazione di un Tornillo è di fondamentale importanza per stimare le caratteristiche della sorgente. Un metodo ad alta risoluzione spettrale basato sulle proprietà di un sistema dinamico è stato sviluppato da Kumazawa et alii (1990). Questo metodo chiamato Sompi è stato successivamente esteso da Yokoyama et alii (1997) alle equazioni AR non omogenee. Noi abbiamo utilizzato quest’ultimo metodo, implementando la procedura di Nakano et alii (1998), per analizzare i Tornillo ed attribuirgli una frequenza complessa.L’analisi di polarizzazione, risolvendo il problema agli autovalori associato alla matrice di covarianza dei segnali relativi alle tre componenti del moto, permette di definire l’orientazione e la lunghezza degli assi dell’ellissoide di polarizzazione associato alla finestra temporale del segnale sismico presa in esame. Al fine di migliorare la stima degli attributi di polarizzazione, la matrice di covarianza è stata corretta per la presenza di rumore sismico, sotto l’ipotesi di stocasticità e stazionarietà del rumore stesso. L’analisi di polarizzazione è stata applicata a oltre 200, tra gli eventi VT-B con maggiore energia, per individuare attraverso la direzione di polarizzazione delle fasi P (linearmente polarizzate) eventuali direzioni prevalenti di provenienza e quindi l’esistenza e ubicazione di volumi sismogenetici.

Description: Published

Description: Rome

Description: 2.5. Laboratorio per lo sviluppo di sistemi di rilevamento sottomarini

Description: open

Description: The Ocean Bottom Seismometer with Hydrophone deployed by the Gibilmanna OBS Lab (CNT-INGV) from the 12th to the 21st July 2006 on the flat top of the Marsili submarine volcano (790m of depth) recorded more than 1000 seismic events. By comparing them with the ones recorded in other volcanic areas and described in literature (Wassermann, 2002; McNutt, 2002; Díaz et al., 2007), we grouped these events in three categories: 817 VTB (Volcanic-Tectonic type B) events, 159 HF (High Frequency) events and 53 SDE’s (Short Duration Event). Small-magnitude VTB swarms, with frequency band between 2 and 6 Hz and mean time length of about 30 seconds, were almost all recorded in the first 7 days, while in the last 2 days, OBS recorded HF events with frequency band over 40 Hz and few minutes of length. Signals with similar frequency and time domain features are associated, to hydrothermal activity (Ohminato, 2006). The SDE waveform, characterized by a monochromatic signal with a slowly decaying envelope, is generated by oscillations of a resonant body excited by magmatic or hydrothermal activity (Chouet, 1996). We applied, to all the signals dataset, polarization and high resolution parametric spectral analysis. This kind of study allowed to mark the VTB events as multi P-phase events with shallow sources placed in a narrow azimuthal window as regards the OBS/H position. The seismogenetic volume is probably located in the North-East sector of the Marsili building. The high resolution parametric spectral analysis of the SDE signals allowed to find with high accuracy their dominant complex frequencies (!=f+ig). Plotting them in the complex frequencies plane we identified two distinct clusters with middle complex frequencies f=7.8s^−1, g=-0.35s^−1 and f=7.5s^−1, g=-0.47s^−1 respectively. These two clusters are probably linked two different seismogenetic volumes.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna

Description: 2.5. Laboratorio per lo sviluppo di sistemi di rilevamento sottomarini

Description: open

Description: L’Italia e l’Indonesia hanno avviato nel 2005-2006 un progetto di cooperazione sulle tematiche della mitigazione del rischio vulcanico. Nell’ambito di questo progetto è stata individuata la zona ovest di Sumatra come area di intervento. In particolare è stato preso in considerazione il vulcanoMarapi. Questo vulcano ha avuto frequente attività eruttiva nelle ultime decine di anni. L’ultima eruzione si è verificata nel 2004. La sua attività, sebbene di moderata intensità, pone un problema di protezione civile, poiché dal 1980 ad oggi ha causato diversi feriti e alcune vittime tra i turisti che hanno visitato l’area craterica sommitale. Allo scopo di monitorare lo stato di attività del Marapi, nell’ambito del citato progetto è stata realizzata una rete sismica a larga banda composta da 4 stazioni e basata su sensori Guralp GMG-40T da 60s di periodo e su acquisitori di tipo GAIA2, prodotti presso l’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. La strumentazione è stata portata dall’Italia ed è stata installata da un gruppo di lavoro formato da italiani ed indonesiani. Oltre all’installazione della strumentazione in campagna è stato necessario allestire un vero e proprio Centro di Monitoraggio presso l’Osservatorio di Bukittinggi, in prossimità delle pendici nordoccidentali del vulcano, dotato di calcolatori per l’acquisizione, l’analisi dei dati e la loro archiviazione. Il sistema per ilmonitoraggio sismologico realizzato alMarapi costituisce un importante strumento di prevenzione del rischio associato all’attività di questo vulcano e sta permettendo di creare un ricco data set utile a caratterizzare la sismicità della struttura vulcanica e dell’area circostante. Da un’analisi preliminare dei dati registrati nel periodo 19/10/2006 - 24/11/2008 si evidenzia che il vulcanomanifesta una sismicità di tipo VT ed LP. Nell’ agosto 2007 sono stati inoltre registrati segnali probabilmente attribuibili a modesta attività esplosiva nell’area sommitale. Italy and Indonesia started a cooperation project in 2005-2006 to cover issues for the mitigation of volcanic risk. In this project, the west area of Sumatra was identified as the area for intervention. In particular, the Marapi volcano was considered. This volcano has shown frequent eruptive activity over recent decades, with the last eruption occurring in 2004. Although its activity is of moderate intensity, it creates a civil protection problem, because since 1980 it has resulted in several injuries and a number of deaths among the tourists who visit the summit crater area. To monitor the activity of Marapi volcano as part of this project, a broadband seismic network has been implemented that consists of four stations based on Guralp GMG 40T sensors with period of 60 s and on GAIA2 data-loggers, which are produced at the INGV. The instrumentation was brought from Italy and was installed by a working group comprising Italians and Indonesians. In addition to the instrumentation in the field, it was necessary to set up a monitoring centre in the Bukittinggi Observatory, which is near the north-western slopes of the Marapi volcano. This is equipped with computers for data acquisition, analysis and archiving. The system for seismological monitoring that has been realized atMarapi volcano is an important tool in the prevention of the risk associated with this volcano, and it is providing a rich dataset that will be of great use for the characterization of the seismicity of the Marapi volcanic structure and the surrounding area. A preliminary analysis of the data recorded during the period 19/10/2006 - 24/11/2008 evidences that the volcano shows VT and LP seismicity. In August 2007 were also recorded signals probably attributable to small explosive activity in the summit area.

Description: INGV Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia

Description: Published

Description: 5-21

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: N/A or not JCR

Description: open

Description: We have analyzed a focal mechanism data set for Mount Vesuvius, consisting of 197 focal mechanisms of events recorded from 1999 to 2012. Using different approaches and a comparison between observations and numerical models, we have determined the spatial variations in the stress field beneath the volcano. The main results highlight the presence of two seismogenic volumes characterized by markedly different stress patterns. The two volumes are separated by a layer where the seismic strain release shows a significant decrease. Previous studies postulated the existence, at about the same depth, of a ductile layer allowing the spreading of the Mount Vesuvius edifice. We interpreted the difference in the stress pattern within the two volumes as the effect of a mechanical decoupling caused by the aforementioned ductile layer. The stress pattern in the top volume is dominated by a reverse faulting style, which agrees with the hypothesis of a seismicity driven by the spreading process. This agrees also with the persistent character of the seismicity located within this volume. Conversely, the stress field determined for the deep volume is consistent with a background regional field locally perturbed by the effects of the topography and of heterogeneities in the volcanic structure. Since the seismicity of the deep volume shows an intermittent behavior and has shown to be linked to geochemical variations in the fumaroles of the volcano, we hypothesize that it results from the effect of fluid injection episodes, possibly of magmatic origin, perturbing the pore pressure within the hydrothermal system.

Description: Published

Description: 1181–1199

Description: 4T. Fisica dei terremoti e scenari cosismici

Description: 2V. Dinamiche di unrest e scenari pre-eruttivi

Description: 5V. Sorveglianza vulcanica ed emergenze

Description: JCR Journal

Description: restricted

Description: Twenty-five lava fountains occurred on Mt. Etna from January 2011 to April 2012. In summer 2012 volcanic activity resumed in a milder form within the Bocca Nuova crater, before it came to an essential halt in August 2012. All these unrests offer rich material for testing automatic procedures of data processing and alert systems, running 24/7, in the context of volcano surveillance. We focus on the seismic background radiation – volcanic tremor – which plays a key role in the monitoring of Mt. Etna. Since 2006 a multistation alert system has been established in the INGV operative centre of Catania exploiting STA/LTA ratios. Besides, also the spectral characteristics of the signal, which change correspondingly to the type of volcanic activity, can be exploited for warning purposes. Here we apply Self Organizing Maps and Fuzzy Clustering which offer an efficient way to visualize signal characteristics and its development with time. All these techniques allow to identify early stages of eruptive events, and automatically flag a critical status before this becomes evident in conventional monitoring techniques. Changes of tremor characteristics are related to the position of the source of the signal. The location of the sources exploits the distribution of the amplitudes across the seismic network. The locations were extremely useful for warning, throughout both the flank eruption in 2008 as well as the 2011 lava fountains, during which a clear migration of tremor sources towards the eruptive centres could be noticed in advance. The location of the sources completes the picture of an imminent volcanic unrest, and corroborates early warnings flagged by the changes of signal characteristics. Real time data processing requires computational efficiency, robustness of the methods and stability of data acquisition. The amplitude based multi-station approach is not sensitive to the failure of single stations and therefore offers a good stability. The single station approach, exploiting unsupervised classification techniques, limits logistic efforts, as only one or few key stations are necessary. Both strategies have proven to be insensitive to disturbances (undesired transients like earthquakes, noise, short gaps in the continuous data flow). False alarms were not encountered so far. Stable data acquisition and processing come with a properly designed data storage solution. The reliability of data storage and its access is a critical issue. A cluster architecture has been realized for failover protection, including a Storage Area Network system, which allow easy data access following predefined user policies. We present concepts of the software architectures deployed at INGV Osservatorio Etneo in order to implement this tremor-based multi approach system. We envisage the integration of seismic data and those originating from other scientific fields (e. g., volcano imagery, geochemistry, deformation, gravity, magneto-telluric). This will facilitate cross-checking of evidences encountered from the single data streams, in particular allow their immediate verification with respect to ground truth.

Description: Published

Description: Nicolosi (Catania, Italy)

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: 5.6. TTC - Attività di Sala Operativa

Description: open

Description: Eighteen paroxysmal episodes occurred on Mt Etna in 2011, and provided rich material for testing automatic procedures of data processing and alert systems in the context of volcano monitoring. The 2011 episodes represent a typical picture of activity of Mt Etna: in 2000 and 2001, before the 2001 flank eruption, more than one hundred lava fountains were encountered. Other major lava fountains occurred before the flank eruptions of 2002/03 and 2008. All these fountains, which are powerful but usually short lived phenomena, originated from the South-East Crater area and caused the formation of thick ash clouds, followed by the fallout of material with severe problems for the infrastructure of the metropolitan area of Catania. We focus on the seismic background radiation – volcanic tremor – which plays a key role in the surveillance of Mt Etna. Since 2006 a multi-station alert system has been established in the INGV operative centre of Catania exploiting STA/LTA ratios. Besides, it has been demonstrated that also the spectral characteristics of the signal changes correspondingly to the type of volcanic activity. The simultaneous application of Self Organizing Maps and Fuzzy Clustering offers an efficient way to visualize signal characteristics and its development with time, allowing to identify early stages of eruptive events and automatically flag a critical status before this becomes evident in conventional monitoring techniques. Changes of tremor characteristics are related to the position of the source of the signal. The location of the sources exploits the distribution of the amplitudes across the seismic network. The locations were extremely useful for warning throughout both a flank eruption in 2008 as well as the 2011 lava fountains, during which a clear migration of tremor sources towards the eruptive centres could be noticed in advance. The location of the sources completes the picture of an imminent volcanic unrest and corroborates early warnings flagged by the changes of signal characteristics. On-line data processing requires computational efficiency, robustness of the methods and reliability of data acquisition. The amplitude based multi-station approach offers a reasonable stability as it is not sensitive to the failure of single stations. The single station approach, based on our unsupervised classification techniques, is cost-effective with respect to logistic efforts, as only one or few key stations are necessary. Both systems have proven to be robust with respect to disturbances (undesired transients like earthquakes, noise, short gaps in the continuous data flow), and false alarms were not encountered so far. Another critical aspect is the reliability of data storage and access. A hardware cluster architecture has been proposed for failover protection, including a Storage Area Network system. We outline concepts of the software architectures which allow easy data access following predefined user policies. We envisage the integration of seismic data and those originating from other scientific fields (such as volcano imagery, geochemistry, deformation, gravity, magneto-telluric), in order to facilitate cross-checking of the findings encountered from the single data streams, in particular allowing their immediate verification with respect to ground truth.

Description: Published

Description: 53-92

Description: 1.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: partially_open

Description: In this work we present seismological and ground deformation evidence for the phase preparing the July 18 to August 9, 2001 flank eruption at Etna. The analysis performed, through data from the permanent seismic and ground deformation networks, highlighted a strong relationship between seismic strain release at depth and surface deformation. This joint analysis provided strong constraints on the magma rising mechanisms. We show that in the last ten years, after the 1991–1993 eruption, an overall accumulation of tension has affected the volcano. Then we investigate the months preceding the 2001 eruption. In particular, we analyse the strong seismic swarm on April 20–24, 2001, comprising more than 200 events (Mmax = 3.6) with prevalent dextral shear fault mechanisms in the western flank. The swarm showed a ca. NE-SW earthquake alignment which, in agreement with previous cases, can be interpreted as the response of the medium to an intrusive process along the approximately NNW-SSE volcano-genetic trend. These mechanisms, leading to the July 18 to August 9, 2001 flank eruption, are analogous to ones observed some months before the 1991–1993 flank eruption and, more recently, in January 1998 before the February-November 1999 summit eruption.

Description: Published

Description: 1469-1487

Description: partially_open

Description: We estimated the attenuation laws of high-frequency seismic waves in the shallow crust (depth 5 km) and earthquake source parameters by using a selected data set of 320 shallow events (2.6 MD 4.2), recorded at Mt. Etna volcano during the last two flank eruptions occurring in 2001 and 2002–2003. The quality factor (Q) was estimated from spectra of P and S waves for 24 stations of the local permanent network by applying a spectral ratio technique. The results show variations in both QP and QS as a function of frequency, according to the power law Q Q0 f n, with n ranging between 0.3 and 1.3 for P waves and between 0.2 and 0.9 for S waves. As typical of volcanic environments, strong azimuthal variations of QP were also found, suggesting the presence of local strong lateral heterogeneities and/or of fluid-filled cracked volumes. After correction for attenuation, we estimated the source parameters (seismic moment, source radius, and stress drop) of a subset of 66 shallow events, under the assumption of a circular dislocation. The estimated seismic moments M0 range from 1013 to 1015 N m. The source radii (r) are confined between 100 and 1000 m and stress drop (Dr) ranges between 0.2 MPa and about 4 MPa. Combining the source parameters obtained in this study with those calculated by Patane` et al. (1997) for an old data set of smaller microearthquakes (109 M0 1014 N m) recorded in the same area, we re-evaluated the scaling relationship between seismic moment (M0) and corner frequency ( fc) for the earthquakes with M0 ranging between 1013 and 1015 N m. We confirm that microearthquakes at Mt. Etna seem not to obey a M0 fc 3 scaling relationship, as generally observed for moderate to large earthquakes, as the slope of the scale dependence about 4.3 or higher. Assuming that this dependence is real, within the uncertainty in the results, a departure from the self-similarity exists for the volcanotectonic earthquakes at Mt. Etna.

Description: Published

Description: reserved

Description: We investigate the relationship between changes of the gravity field and the release of the seismic energy at Mt. Etna over a 12-year period (1994-2006), during which the volcano exhibited different eruptive patterns. Over the two sub-periods when intense gravity decreases occur, centered on the upper southeastern sector of the volcano (late-1996 to mid-1999 and late-2000 to mid-2001), the strain release curve displays neat long-term accelerations, with many hypocenters clustered in the volume containing the gravity source. Various evidences suggest that, since 1994 and until the breakout of the 2001 eruption, the eastern flank of Etna remained peripheral to the lines of rise of the magma from the deep storage to the surface. Accordingly, we hypothesize that, rather than being directly associated to the migration of the magma, the joint anomalies we found image phases of higher tensile stress on the upper southeastern sector, associated to increase in the rate of microfracturing along the NNW-SSE fracture zone. Such an increase implies a local density (gravity) decrease, and an increase in the release of seismic energy, thus explaining the correlation we observe. The second period of gravity decrease/strain release increase culminated in the breakout of the 2001 flank eruption, as a pressurized deeper magma accumulation used the inferred zone of increasing microfracturing as a path to the surface. This eruption marks an important modification in the structure of Etna’s plumbing system, as also testified by the absence of post-2001 long-term gravity changes and accelerations in the strain release curve and the neat modification of the seismicity and ground deformation patterns. Thus we prove that joint microgravity and seismic studies can allow zones of the medium experiencing an increase in the rate of microfracturing to be identified months to years before a magma batch is conveyed through them to the surface, setting off a lateral eruption.

Description: Published

Description: 282–292

Description: 3.6. Fisica del vulcanismo

Description: JCR Journal

Description: reserved

Description: In this paper we report seismological evidence regarding the emplacement of the dike that fed the July 18 - August 9, 2001 lateral eruption at Mt. Etna volcano. The shallow intrusion and the opening of the eruptive fracture system, which mostly occurred during July 12, and July 18, were accompanied by one of the most intense seismic swarms of the last 20 years. A total of 2694 earthquakes (1 £ Md £ 3.9) were recorded from the beginning of the swarm (July 12) to the end of the eruption (August 9). Seismicity shows the upward migration of the dike from the basement to the relatively thin volcanic pile. A clear hypocentral migration was observed, well constraining the upwards propagation of a near-vertical dike, oriented roughly N-S, and located a few kilometers south of the summit region. Earthquake distribution and orientation of the P-axes from focal mechanisms indicate that the swarm was caused by the local stress source related to the dike intrusion.

Description: Published

Description: 599-608

Description: JCR Journal

Description: open