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Università degli studi di Catania
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- PublicationRestrictedRapid morphological changes at the summit of an active volcano: reappraisal of the poorly documented 1964 eruption of Mount Etna (Italy)(2004-12-06)
; ; ; ;Behncke, B.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Neri, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Sturiale, G.; Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy; ; While the eruptive record of Mount Etna is reasonably complete for the past 400 years, the activity of the early and late 1960s, which took place at the summit, is poorly documented in the scientific literature. From 1955 to 1971, the Central and Northeast Craters were the sites of long-lived mild Strombolian and effusive activity, and numerous brief episodes of vigorous eruptive activity, which led to repeated overflows of lava onto the external flanks of the volcano. A reconstruction of the sequence of the more important of these events based on research in largely obscure and nearly inaccessible sources permits a better understanding of the eruption dynamics and rough estimates of erupted volumes and of the changes to the morphology of the summit area. During the first half of 1964, the activity culminated in a series of highly dynamic events at the Central Crater including the opening of a fissure on the E flank of the central summit cone, lava fountains, voluminous tephra emission, prolonged strong activity with continuous lava overflows, and growth of large pyroclastic intracrater cones. Among the most notable processes during this eruption was the breaching of a section of the crater wall, which was caused by lateral pressure of lava ponding within the crater. Comparison with the apparently similar summit activity of 1999 allows us to state that (a) lava overflows from large pit craters at the summit are often accompanied by breaching of the crater walls, which represents a significant hazard to nearby observers, and that (b) eruptive activity in 1999 was much more complex and voluminous than in 1964. For 1960s standards however, the 1964 activity was the most important summit eruption in terms of intensity and output rates for about 100 years, causing profound changes to the summit morphology and obliterating definitively the former Central Crater.213 78 - PublicationRestrictedActive deformation along the northern margin of the Hyblean Plateau (SE Sicily) from GPS and geological data(2012)
; ; ; ; ; ; ;Bonforte, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Catalano, S.; Università degli studi di Catania ;Maniscalco, R.; Università degli studi di Catania ;Romagnoli, G.; Università degli studi di Catania ;Sturiale, G.; Università degli studi di Catania ;Tortorici, G.; Università degli studi di Catania; ; ; ; ; A diffuse fragmentation of the Nubia-Eurasia tectonic boundary, due to the propagation of distinct extensional belts, has characterised the post-collision evolution of the region. In this frame, the Hyblean Plateau was affected, since about 1.5 Ma B.P., by the propagation of the the roughly N-S trending Siculo-Calabrian Rift Zone (SCRZ in Fig.1a; MONACO & TORTORICI, 2000), an extensional belt that extends from the onshore of southern Calabria to the SE Sicily. In the Hyblean plateau the propagation of the rift zone caused the reactivation of the main previous discontinuity. The earlier SE Sicily branch of the rift zone, in fact, propagated from the Ionian coast to the Scicli Line, causing the collapse of the NEtrending Scordia-Lentini Graben, at the northern margin of the plateau. This extensional basin represents an half-graben, which is controlled by a SE-facing master fault.218 38 - PublicationRestrictedThe influence of erosional processes on the visibility of Permanent Scatterers Features from SAR remote sensing on Mount Etna (E Sicily)(2013-09-15)
; ; ; ; ; ; ;Catalano, S.; Università di Catania ;Bonforte, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Guglielmino, F.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Romagnoli, G.; Università di Catania ;Tarsia, C.; Università di Catania ;Tortorici, G.; Università di Catania; ; ; ; ; Analysis of 1549 DInSAR interferograms, covering the period from 2003 to 2010, has highlighted significant motion along the entire set of the active faults identified by advanced DInSAR analyses (i.e. Permanent Scatterers Features, PSF), affecting the Mount Etna volcano, in eastern Sicily. In the analysed period, the absence of significant seismicity producing co-seismic ground deformation suggests that the overall deformation that has been recognized on the interferograms is to be associated with interseismic, almost continuous creep which is, well documented along most of the active faults. According to field evidence, the structures should accumulate displacements resulting in their permanent visibility on the interferograms, progressively increases through time. This expected behaviour has been recognised only for part of the entire set of structures. Other tectonic features, in fact, show episodic appearances, alternating with periods of absence of ground displacement on the interferograms, simulating a stick-slip mechanism of deformation, conflicting with field evidence. This apparently incongruous behaviour can be interpreted as the result of topographic changes due to the combination of the tectonic displacements with related amounts of the differential erosion and deposition across the fault line. The comparison between the history of the appearances and the monthly rainfall in the region seems to demonstrate that these structures appear when one of the two interacting processes governing the topographic changes around the fault, i.e. tectonic vs. erosional, prevails over the other. Otherwise, the same structures are not evident on the interferograms when the two components are in balance.213 59 - PublicationOpen AccessGeological and geodetic constraints on the active deformation along the northern margin of the Hyblean Plateau (SE Sicily)(2015)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;Bonforte, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Catania, Catania, Italia ;Catalano, S.; Università di Catania ;Maniscalco, R.; Università di Catania ;Pavano, N.; Università di Catania ;Romagnoli, G.; Università di Catania ;Sturiale, G.; Università di Catania ;Tortorici, G.; Università di Catania; ; ; ; ; ; A geologic and geodetic integrated analysis of the northern margin of the Hyblean Plateau (SE Sicily) has been carried out in order to test the relationship between the active deformation, recorded by GPS data, and the long-term tectonic evolution, reconstructed by the interpretation of structural and morphological data. Our study revealed the active growth of a large antiform, as a consequence of the positive tectonic inversion of the previous flexure, bordering the Hyblean Foreland. The deformation of Middle–Late Pleistocene marine terraces and the evolution of the drainage system are consistent with a progressive regional tilting of the entire eastern sector of the Hyblean Plateau (Siracusa Domain), representing the southern limb of the active antiform. The geometry of the Late Quaternarymarine strandlines, comparedwith the results of analoguemodels, is compatible with the effects of the NW-ward propagation of a detachment fault at depth. The active deformation of the Hyblean region, coherentwith the Nubia–Eurasia plate convergence, suggests to candidate the inverted tectonics at the northern border of the Hyblean Plateau as potential seismogenic sources of the area.681 112