Aloisi, Marco

Geophysical data provide the chance to investigate a volcano's dynamics; considerable information can especially be gleaned on the stress and strain patterns accompanying the internal processes and the effect of magma ascent on the main structures triggering earthquakes. Here, we analysed in detail the seismicity recorded over the last two decades on Etna volcano (southern Italy), focusing on earthquakes distribution and focal mechanism clustering; the ground deformation pattern affecting the volcanic edifice with the inflation and deflation phases was also examined. Analysed data were compared in order to shed light on possible relationships with the volcanic activity and to better understand the internal dynamics of the volcano over time. Significant steps during or shortly before major eruptions in the seismic strain release and ground deformation temporal series highlight a straightforward relationship between seismicity occurring at shallow level, inflation/deflation and volcanism. Furthermore, at depths greater than 5-7 km, down to about 20 km, the orientation of the P- and T-axes clearly indicate the existence of a pressure source in the central part of the volcano. All the results underline that the stress field related to the volcano plumbing system interferes with the regional field, partly overriding it.

Seismic tomography is a very powerful and effective approach to look at depths beneath volcanic systems thus helping to better understand their behaviour. The P-wave and S-wave velocity ratio, in particular, is a key parameter useful to discriminate the presence of gas, fluids and melts. We computed the first 3-D overall model of Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs for the Lipari-Vulcano complex, central sector of the Aeolian volcanic archipelago (southern Italy). The investigated area has been characterized in recent times by fumaroles, hydrothermal activity and active degassing. In particular, in the Vulcano Island, several episodes of anomalous increases of fumarole temperature and strong degassing have been recorded in the past decades and the last "crisis", started in September 2021, is still ongoing. For tomographic inversion we collected ~ 4400 crustal earthquakes that occurred in the last thirty years and we used the LOcal TOmography Software LOTOS. The results clearly depicted two low Vp and Vp/Vs anomalies located up to ~ 8 km depths below Vulcano and the western offshore of Lipari, respectively. These anomalies can be associated to the large presence of gas and they furnish a first picture of the gas-filled volumes feeding the main degassing activity of the area.

Argnani (2021, hereinafter ARG2021) commented on the paper by Barreca et al. (2021, hereinafter BRC2021) titled: “The Strait of Messina: Seismotectonics and the source of the 1908 earthquake”, in which a new seismotectonic model and constraints on the possible source fault (the so-called W-Fault) for the 1908 disastrous seismic event were provided. Results from BRC2021 led to a revision of most of the previously published papers on the issue. ARG2021 commented both on the recent activity of the W-Fault and even about its existence in the offshore. In fact, according to the author's inferences: “it may belong to a fault system that is no longer active” and, contradictorily, “the offshore occurrence of the W-Fault is not supported by the data”. The comment is mostly based on a new tectonic interpretation that the author performed directly on the BRC2021 figures, where the offshore portion of the W-fault is illustrated. In this reply, we demonstrate that the interpretation provided by ARG2021 is affected by several oversights that led the author to erroneous conclusions about the issue. Accordingly, we strongly confirm both the occurrence of the W-Fault in the offshore and the present-day activity of this structure, the only active fault capable of producing large earthquakes in the Strait of Messina area.

We analyze Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and tilt data from the permanent monitoring networks of Etna volcano starting just after the 24 December 2018 eruption to an unusual two-month period of deflation in February–March, 2021, which coincided with the occurrence of 17 lava fountain episodes. Based on changes in slope in the GNSS displacement time series, we divide the period starting 7 months after the eruption into five phases, spanning the continued inflation of the edifice punctuated by short periods of effusive and strombolian activity (four phases) and a 2-month phase of intensive deflation. Our model indicates a progressive deepening of the internal pressure sources followed by a fast ascending source starting two-months before the first 2021 paroxysms. We explain these results in light of a recent volcanological model on the nature and behavior of magma ascending through the Etnean feeding system.

Pino et al. (2021, hereinafter PIN2021) commented on the paper by Barreca et al. (2021, hereinafter B2021) titled: “The Strait of Messina: Seismotectonics and the source of the 1908 earthquake”, which was published in the journal Earth-Sciences Reviews in May 2021. PIN2021 argued both on the “source model of the 1908 EQ”, as proposed by B2021, and on the existence of the newly discovered causative fault (i.e. the B2021W-Fault). Based on “objective reading of achieved results along with other existing geophysical information…“, PIN2021 conclude: “the source mechanism for the 1908 EQ is based on incorrect assumptions, while their results are internally inconsistent and with other independent observations”. According to PIN2021, the inconsistency of the proposed “source mechanism”, which foresaw the possibility of an aseismic slip on a low-angle discontinuity preceding the 1908 mainshock (see B2021), would be mainly demonstrated by “the lack of significant variations of the relative sea level in the Messina harbor area, in the time period relevant for the levelling data (1907-1908) ……. and at least for the decade preceding the event”. Moreover, to demonstrate that the deformation is mostly coseismic, PIN2021 proposes a sea level diagram based on unreliable data from the Messina tide gauge. In this paper, we demonstrate that the comments by PIN2021 are unfounded. We strongly confirm the scientific validity of the model proposed in B2021.

In July and August 2019, Stromboli volcano underwent two dangerous paroxysms previously considered “unexpected” because of the absence of significant changes in usually monitored parameters. We applied a multidisciplinary approach to search for signals able to indicate the possibility of larger explosive activity and to devise a model to explain the observed variations. We analysed geodetic data, satellite thermal data, images from remote cameras and seismic data in a timespan crossing the eruptive period of 2019 to identify precursors of the two paroxysms on a medium-term time span (months) and to perform an in-depth analysis of the signals recorded on a short time scale (hours, minutes) before the paroxysm. We developed a model that explains the observations. We call the model “push and go” where the uppermost feeding system of Stromboli is made up of a lower section occupied by a low viscosity, low density magma that is largely composed of gases and a shallower section occupied by the accumulated melt. We hypothesize that the paroxysms are triggered when an overpressure in the lower section is built up; the explosion will occur at the very moment such overpressure overcomes the confining pressure of the highly viscous magma above it.

A key issue on active volcanoes is to investigate the position and characteristics of the magma reservoirs over time. The aim is to better understand the crustal magma transfer, therefore also to define the volcanic hazard and plan the mitigation strategies. Mt. Etna volcano is characterized by a lively eruptive activity with frequent major flank eruptions that can be both purely effusive and explosive-effusive. This volcano has been monitored over 40 years by ground deformation measurements. The studies and modeling of the eruptive processes through these data have mainly concerned single eruptions and the recharge phases that preceded them. In this study, for the first time, we present four decades of numerous recharge periods modeled over time by using the same typology of measurements (geodetic baselines) and the same modeling method. This uniform approach enables tracking the location of magma storage in a robust and unambiguous way during its recharging, which causes the volcano to inflate. In particular, the recharging periods that preceded the main eruptive activities were investigated. The tracking of the source positions contributes to update the representation of the shallow-intermediate plumbing system (last 10 km). Moreover, as a new result, we highlight that the recharges preceding the explosive eruptions are accompanied by a deepening over time of the centroid of the pressure source. This result opens up new scenarios on the relationship between the position of the recharging storage and the subsequent eruptive style.

In this work we investigate the 4 April, 2010, Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah (EMC) earthquake. Existing studies modeled the EMC area as an elastic half-space in a homogeneous or vertically layered structure, which, along with differences in data and inversion methodologies, led to considerable variability in the resultant fault slip models. To investigate the EMC earthquake more realistically, we first examine how published coseismic fault slip models have approached the problem and what are their findings, then we select the optimal geometry and slip of one most recent and comprehensive coseismic fault slip model, obtained through analytical inversions, and adapt them in a three-dimensional finite element numerical environment where we assess the effects of topography and material heterogeneities. Numerically optimized slip models are obtained via joint inversion of GPS, interferometric synthetic aperture radar and subpixel offset datasets. We find the effect of topography to be negligible while the inclusion of material heterogeneities enhances the slip at depth, as might be expected where the medium has higher rigidity, and better fits the displacements at both near and far field, especially around the Salton Sea area. The match with geodetic data is significantly improved when the fault slip is increased at the fault planes close to the epicenter and deeper at the southernmost plane, with respect to the slip of the chosen analytical model. Our findings suggest that this earthquake was associated with a higher and more spatially concentrated slip than previously thought implying a greater stress drop at depth.

More than 100 years after the devasting Messina-Reggio Calabria earthquake (M = 7.1), the largest seismic event ever recorded in southern Europe in the instrumental epoch, its causative seismic source is still unknown, and the several rupture models proposed in the last decades are far from any shared solution. Data interpretation on a new dataset of sub-seafloor geophysical soundings with unprecedented resolution, relocated seismicity, and Vp model, together with morphotectonic investigations and inverse modelling of available levelling data, provide additional constraints on the deformation mechanisms and seismotectonics of the Strait of Messina area. Highresolution seismic lines in the offshore, along with displaced Quaternary marine terraces on land, point to active deformation along a previously unmapped ~34.5 km-long extensional fault. Spatial distribution of relocated earthquakes highlighted that a cut-off of the seismicity occurs within the crustal depth. The seismic discontinuity roughly delineates a foreland-dipping and low-angle discontinuity apparently confirming previous studies predicting low-angle seismogenic sources for the 1908 seismic event. However, according to the overburden stress and the attitude of the discontinuity, stress analysis suggests that a seismic slip is unlikely along it. This therefore weakens the hypothesis that a large earthquake may have nucleated along a low-angle discontinuity. Rather, aseismic creeping is instead expected since movement is allowed only by assuming a mechanical weakness of the plane. This mechanical behaviour is currently also supported by the large interseismic strain-rate recorded in the area. Both seismic tomography and crustal-to-subcrustal scale 3D-modelling strongly suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between slab retreat, mantle wedging, uplift in the upper plate block, and active extension in the Strait of Messina area. Lithospheric doming of the upper plate is here interpreted to be the main process controlling uplift in the Peloritani Mts. of Sicily and subsidence in the Strait of Messina region where deformation is mainly accommodated by the weak low-angle discontinuity. In this frame, an almost aseismical slip towards the foreland of the low-angle discontinuity is here accounted to produce stress perturbation in the area. Coulomb stress change modelling revealed that simulated normal slip on the foreland-dipping discontinuity can induce additional stress and promote failure in the overlying brittle faults. An excellent fit between calculated and observed subsidence is achieved by geodetic data inversion that resolved a normal slip on the low-angle discontinuity and a transtensional (slightly left-lateral) motion on the 34.5 km-long and previously unknown extensional fault. The fault-length along with the observed seafloor displacement make this tectonic structure as the most likely to have produced large earthquakes in the Strait of Messina area.

New data and interpretations of the geodynamics of eastern Sicily point to deep crustal shortening taking place in the area. Reconstructions of the lithospheric system, seismicity distribution, and stress state in the crust indicate that deformation is expressed by a large thrust‐ramp cutting through the entire lower plate. The tectonic structure is propagating directly beneath the Mount Etna volcano, one of the few active volcanoes in Europe. Geostructural interpretation of tomographic sections allows for interpretations of the compressional structure as originating in response to trench‐parallel breakoff of the Ionian slab. Following the simple assumption that if a slab retreats, it must either be compensated or alternatively pushed by the fore‐arc mantle, we argue that the opening of a gateway in the slab has encouraged the fore‐arc mantle to flow toward the Mount Etna region. Mantle mobilization has had a twofold influence on both magmatic source mixing and the inception of underplating processes beneath the Mount Etna. A shortening prevailing over extension in the crust below the volcano seems to have a significant impact on the dynamics of the Mount Etna volcanic system, which manifested through anomalous signals over the last thousands of years. Since a tectonic inversion of previous dilatational magma pathways is expected in such a converging setting, the documented variations are believed to be consistent with a volcano experiencing a declining phase. Comparison with other extinct volcanic systems in the southern Tyrrhenian margin, lying atop a detached slab and involved in contraction, provides insights into the evolution of Mount Etna.