The 2004–2006 uplift episode at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy): Constraints from SBAS-DInSAR ENVISAT data and Bayesian source inference

Abstract

We investigate the 2004–2006 uplift phase of Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy) by exploiting the archive of ascending and descending ENVISAT SAR data acquired from November 2002 to November 2006. The SBAS-DInSAR technique is applied to generate displacement mean velocity maps and time series. An appropriate post-processing step is subsequently applied to map the areas whose temporal deformation behavior is correlated with that of the maximum uplift zone. Our results show that the deformation also extends outside the volcanological limits of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff caldera, without significant discontinuities. The DInSAR data are inverted by considering a finite spheroid and an isotropic pointsource. The inversion results suggest that the new uplift is characterized by a source location similar to the previous small uplift event of 2000 and to the long term subsidence of the 1990’s. In particular, the source is located at a depth of about 3.2 km and very close to the city of Pozzuoli (about 800 m offshore, to the SW); the associated volume variation is about 1.1 106 m3/year.