Source geometry from exceptionally high resolution long period event observations at Mt Etna during the 2008 eruption

Louis de Barros (1) , Christopher J. Bean (1) , Ivan Lokmer (1) , Gilberto Saccorotti (2) , Luciano Zucarello (3) , Gareth O'Brien (1) , Jean-Philippe Métaxian (4) , Domenico Patanè (3)

1 School of Geological Sciences [Dublin]
2 INGV - Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Sezione di Pisa
3 INGV - Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Sezione di Catania
4 LGIT - Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique

During the second half of June, 2008, 50 broadband seismic stations were deployed on Mt Etna volcano in close proximity to the summit, allowing us to observe seismic activity with exceptionally high resolution. 129 long period events (LP) with dominant frequencies ranging between 0.3 and 1.2 Hz, were extracted from this dataset. These events form two families of similar waveforms with different temporal distributions. Event locations are performed by cross-correlating signals for all pairs of stations in a two-step scheme. In the first step, the absolute location of the centre of the clusters was found. In the second step, all events are located using this position. The hypocentres are found at shallow depths (20 to 700 m deep) below the summit craters. The very high location resolution allows us to detect the temporal migration of the events along a dike-like structure and 2 pipe shaped bodies, yielding an unprecedented view of some elements of the shallow plumbing system at Mount Etna. These events do not seem to be a direct indicator of the ongoing lava flow or magma upwelling.

Mots clés: Volcano seismology; Mount Etna; Location; Long Period Events

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Milieux et Changements globaux

Louis de Barros, Christopher J. Bean, Ivan Lokmer, Gilberto Saccorotti, Luciano Zucarello, et al.. Source geometry from exceptionally high resolution long period event observations at Mt Etna during the 2008 eruption. Geophysical Research Letters, 2009, 36, pp.L24305. ⟨10.1029/2009GL041273⟩. ⟨hal-00447913⟩