Steffke, A.

We present a 30 year long data set of satellite‐derived time‐averaged lava discharge rates (TADR) for Mount Etna volcano (Sicily, Italy), spanning 1980–2010 and comprising 1792 measurements during 23 eruptions. We use this to classify eruptions on the basis of magnitude and intensity, as well as the shape of the TADR time series which characterizes each effusive event. We find that while 1983–1993 was characterized by less frequent but longer‐duration effusive eruptions at lower TADRs, 2000–2010 was characterized by more frequent eruptions of shorter duration and higher TADRs. However, roughly the same lava volume was erupted during both of these 11 year long periods, so that the volumetric output was linear over the entire 30 year period, increasing at a rate of 0.8 m3 s−1 between 1980 and 2010. The cumulative volume record can be extended back in time using data available in the literature. This allows us to assess Etna’s output history over 5 centuries and to place the current trend in historical context. We find that output has been stable at this rate since 1971. At this time, the output rate changed from a low discharge rate phase, which had characterized the period 1759 to 1970, to a high discharge rate phase. This new phase had the same output rate as the high discharge rate phase that characterized the period 1610–1669. The 1610–1669 phase ended with the most voluminous eruption of historic times.

Using thermal infrared images recorded by a permanent thermal camera network maintained on Stromboli volcano (Italy), together with satellite and helicopter‐based thermal image surveys, we have compiled a chronology of the events and processes occurring before and during Stromboli’s 2007 effusive eruption. These digital data also allow us to calculate the effusion rates and lava volumes erupted during the effusive episode. At the onset of the 2007 eruption, two parallel eruptive fissures developed within the northeast crater, eventually breaching the NE flank of the summit cone and extending along the easternmargin of the Sciara del Fuoco. These fed amain effusive vent at 400m above sea level to feed lava flows that extended to the sea. The effusive eruption was punctuated,on 15 March, by a paroxysm with features similar to those of the 5 April paroxysm that occurred during the 2002–2003 effusive eruption. A total of between 3.2 × 106 and 11 × 106 m3 of lava was erupted during the 2007 eruption, over 34 days of effusive activity. More than half of this volume was emplaced during the first 5.5 days of the eruption. Although the 2007 effusive eruption had an erupted volume comparable to that of the previous (2002–2003) effusive eruption, it had a shorter duration and thus a mean output rate (=total volume divided by eruption duration) that was 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the 2002– 2003 event (∼2.4 versus 0.32 ± 0.28 m3 s−1). In this paper, we discuss similarities and differences between these two effusive events and interpret the processes occurring in 2007 in terms of the recent dynamics witnessed at Stromboli.

In the paper “Thirty years of satellite-derived lava discharge rates at Etna: Implications for steady volumetric output” by Andrew Harris et al. (Journal of Geophysical Research, 116, B08204, doi:10.1029/2011JB008237), the numbers on Table A1 were wrong. The correct values for Table A1 are reported here.