The evolution of elastic moduli with increasing crack damage during cyclic stressing of a basalt from Mt. Etna volcano

Volcanic edifices, such as Mt. Etna (Italy), are commonly subject to repeated cycles of stress over time due to the combination of magma emplacement from deep reservoirs to shallow depths and superimposed tectonic stresses. Such repeated stress cycles lead to anisotropic deformation and an increase in the level of crack damage within the rocks of the edifice and hence changes to their elastic moduli, which are a key parameter for reliable modelling of deformation sources. We therefore report results of changes in elastic moduli measured during increasing amplitude cyclic stressing experiments on dry and water-saturated samples of Etna basalt. In all experiments, the Young’s modulus decreased by approximately 30% over the total sequence of loading cycles, and the Poisson’s ratio increased by a factor of approximately 3 ± 0.5. Microseismicity, in terms of acoustic emission (AE) output, was also recorded throughout each experiment. Our results demonstrate that AE output only re-commences during any loading cycle when the level of stress where AE ceased during the unloading portion of the previous cycle is exceeded; a manifestation of the Kaiser stress-memory effect. In cycles where no AE output is generated, we also observe no change in elastic moduli. This result is observed for both mechanical and thermal stressing. Our results are interpreted in relation to measurements of volcano-tectonic seismicity and deformation at Mt. Etna volcano.