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Originally published in Science Express on 6 February 2003
Science 28 March 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5615, pp. 2061 - 2063
DOI: 10.1126/science.1080653
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Reports

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

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Forecasting Etna eruptions by real-time observation of volcanic gas composition.
A. Aiuppa, R. Moretti, C. Federico, G. Giudice, S. Gurrieri, M. Liuzzo, P. Papale, H. Shinohara, and M. Valenza (2007)
Geology 35, 1115-1118
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Arrival of extremely volatile-rich high-Mg magmas changes explosivity of Mount Etna.
V. S. Kamenetsky, M. Pompilio, N. Metrich, A. V. Sobolev, D. V. Kuzmin, and R. Thomas (2007)
Geology 35, 255-258
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Time-resolved seismic tomography detects magma intrusions at Mount Etna..
D. Patane, G. Barberi, O. Cocina, P. De Gori, and C. Chiarabba (2006)
Science 313, 821-823
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)