New integrated geodetic monitoring system at Stromboli volcano (Italy)

Abstract

Stromboli is a composite volcano, rising about 2.5 km above the sea floor, whose top lies about 1 km above the sea level forming the northernmost island of the Aeolian Archipelago volcanic arc (Tyrrhenian Sea). On December 28th, 2002, lava flows outpoured from the northern wall of NE crater and come down in the Sciara del Fuoco (SdF), a deep depression that marks the NW flank of the volcano edifice. On December 30th, 2002, two landslides occurred on the northern part of the SdF; it moved a mass in the order of tens of millions of cubic meters both above and below the sea level. The landslide produced a tsunami that causes significant damage on the eastern cost of the island, reaching the others Aeolian Islands and the Sicilian and south Italian coasts. This event lead to the upgrade of the ground deformation monitoring system, already existing on the island; the new requirement was the real-time detection of the deformations related to potential slope failures of the SdF. To this aim, a remotely controlled monitoring system, based both on GPS and topographic techniques was planned and set up in few months. The new monitoring system allowed to continuously measure the ground deformations occurring on the SdF, by integrating both terrestrial topographic and satellite geodetic techniques. Despite this system was severely damaged during the 7-months lasting eruption, it allowed to monitor important eruptive phases. For the first time, an accurate data set about the actual mass movements of the SdF and the crater area was available. It provided data that significantly supported the Civil Protection Authorities in making decisions and constrain the hypothesis about the landslide movements and volcanic activity. After the end of the eruption, the system was reinstated in order to optimize the instruments and to set up a monitoring system aimed at measuring deformations forecasting other flank collapses.