Small-aperture Array for Seismic Monitoring of Mt.Vesuvius

Abstract

A small aperture quadripartite seismic array was installed on the south-east flanks of Mt. Vesuvius about 1 km far from the crater axis, in order to improve the seismic monitoring of this active volcano. The array has the following main purposes: i) to discriminate natural-source generated signals by artificial-source-generated signals; ii) to detect and track the source of possible Long Period (LP) events; iii) to detect coherent phases in the low frequency noise that may be related to magma movements (tremor insurgence). In addition, the array greatly helps in locating the seismic signals produced by blasts (both in land and sea), allowing a fast discrimination of possible natural long period (LP) quakes. The array is also an useful tool for retrieving the kinematic properties of the wavefield associated to volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes (more than 99% of the whole natural seismicity) and to all the other transients which are routinely observed(landslides, artificial blasts). We also use the array to investigate if correlated signals are present in the background noise (insurgence of volcanic tremor). The main result obtained during this first year of observation is that one LP was clearly recognized in the background seismicity at Mt. Vesuvius.