Comment on "Multidisciplinary investigation on a lava fountain preceding a flank eruption: The 10 May 2008 Etna case" by A. Bonaccorso et al.

Abstract

The paper "Multidisciplinary investigation on a lava fountain preceding a flank eruption: The 10 May 2008 Etna case", by Bonaccorso et al. (2011), presents a multi-parameter dataset encompassing the eruptive episode featured in the title. Through the dataset at their disposal, the authors tried to set constraints on the coupled phenomena which governed the paroxysmal event and subsequent flank eruption. Even though the joint analysis of different data offers considerable potential to extract additional information on the dynamics behind the observed phenomena, the most obvious implication is the risk of not treating all the available information with due care, which may lead to misinterpretation of the data. In the following, we discuss issues concerning the analysis and interpretation of gravity and tilt data in Bonaccorso et al. (2011) and show why, in our opinion, the conclusion that "all the data concur in indicating that the 10 May lava fountain was generated by the fragmentation of a foam layer trapped at the top of a shallow reservoir" is not soundly based.