Magma Ascent and the Pressurization of Mount Etna's Volcanic System
Domenico Patanè,1*
Pasquale De Gori,2
Claudio Chiarabba,2
Alessandro Bonaccorso1
After a period of deflation during the 1991-1993
flank eruption, Mount Etna underwent a rapid inflation. Seismicity and
ground deformation show that since 1994, a huge volume of magma
intruded beneath the volcano, producing from 1998 onward a series of
eruptions at the summit and on the flank of the volcano. The last of
these, started on 27 October 2002, is still in progress and can be
considered one of the most explosive eruptions of the volcano in recent
times. Here we show how geodetic data and seismic deformation, between 1994 and 2001, indicate a radial compression around an axial intrusion, consistent with a repressurization of Mount Etna's plumbing system at
a depth of 6 to 15 kilometers, which triggered most of the seismicity
and provoked the dilatation of the volcano and the recent explosive
eruptive activity.
1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e
Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, Piazza Roma, 2, 95123 Catania, Italy.
2 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia,
Centro Nazionale Terremoti, via di Vigna Murata, 605, 00143 Roma,
Italy.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
patane{at}ct.ingv.it
