Funiciello, Renato

Anecdotes of concurrent eruptions at Etna, Stromboli, and Vulcano (Southern Italy) have persisted for more than 2000 years and volcanologists in recent and past times have hypothesized a causal link among these volcanoes. Here this hypothesis is tested. To introduce the problem and provide examples of the type of expected volcanic phenomena, narratives of the most notable examples of concurrent eruptions are provided. Then the frequency of eruptions at each individual volcano is analysed for about the last 300 years and the expected probability of concurrent eruptions is calculated to compare it to the observed probability. Results show that the occurrence of concurrent eruptions is often more frequent than a random probability, particularly for the Stromboli-Vulcano pair. These results are integrated with a statistical analysis of the earthquake catalogue to find evidence of linked seismicity in the Etnean and Aeolian areas. Results suggest a moderate incidence of non-random concurrent eruptions, but available data are temporally limited and do not allow an unequivocal identification of plausible triggers; our results, however, are the first attempt to quantify a more-than-2000-years-old curious observation and constitute a starting point for more sophisticated analyses of new data in the future. We look forward to our prediction of a moderate incidence of concurrent eruptions being confirmed or refuted with the passage of time and occurrence of new events.

Fissure eruptions may provide important information on the shallow propagation of dikes at volcanoes. Somma-Vesuvius (Italy) consists of the active Vesuvius cone, bordered to the north by the remnants of the older Somma edifice. Historical chronicles are considered to define the development of the 37 fissure eruptions between A.D. 1631 and 1944. The 1631 fissure, which reopened the magmatic conduit, migrated upward and was the only one triggered by the subvertical propagation of a dike. The other 25 fissure eruptions migrated downward, when the conduit was open, through the lateral propagation of radial dikes. We suggest two scenarios for the development of the fissures. When the summit conduit is closed, the fissures are fed by vertically propagating dikes. When the summit conduit is open, the fissures are fed by laterally propagating dikes along the volcano slopes. Consistent behaviors are found at other composite volcanoes, suggesting a general application to our model, independent of the tectonic setting and composition of magma. At Vesuvius, the historical data set and our scenarios are used to predict the consequences of the emplacement of fissures after the opening of the conduit. The results suggest that, even though the probability of opening of vents within the inhabited south and west slopes is negligible, the possibility that these are reached by a lava flow remains significant.

The structure and shape of collapses and resurgences is often controlled by pre-existing discontinuities, such as normal faults in rift zones. In order to study the role of extensional structures on collapse and resurgence, we used analogue models. Dry sand simulated the brittle crust; silicone, located at the base of the sand-pack, simulated magma. In the experiments, regional extension pre-dated collapse or resurgence, forming normal faults in a grabenlike structure; the graben was filled with additional sand, simulating post-rift deposits. A piston then moved the silicone downward or upward, inducing collapse or resurgence within the previously deformed sand. The collapses showed an ellipticity (length of minor axis/length of major axis) between 0.8 and 0.9, with the major axis parallel to the extension direction. The partial reactivation of the pre-existing normal faults was observed during the development of the caldera reverse faults, which, conversely to what was expected (from experiments without preexisting extension), became partly inward dipping. Resurgence showed an elongation of the uplifted part, with the main axis perpendicular to the extension direction. At depth, pre-existing normal faults were partly reactivated by the reverse faults formed during resurgence; these locally became outward dipping normal faults. A total reactivation of pre-existing faults was also observed during resurgence. The experiments suggest that the observed elongation of calderas and resurgences is the result of the reactivation of pre-existing structures during differential uplift. Such a reactivation is mainly related to the loss in the coefficient of friction of the sand. The results suggest that elliptic calderas and resurgences in nature may develop even from circular magma chambers.

We describe the evolution of the volcanic activity and deformation patterns observed at Mount Etna during the July–August 2001 eruption. Seismicity started at 3000 m below sea level on 13 July, accompanied by moderate ground swelling. Ground deformation culminated on 16 July with the development of a NE–SW graben c. 500 m wide and c. 1 m deep in the Cisternazza area at 2600–2500 m above sea level on the southern slope of the volcano. On 17 July, the eruption started at the summit of Mount Etna from the SE Crater (central–lateral eruptive system), from which two radial, c. 30 m wide, c. 3000 m long fracture zones, associated with eruptive fissures, propagated both southward (17 July) and northeastward (20 July). On 18 July, a new vent formed at 2100 m elevation, at the southern base of the Montagnola, followed on the next day by the opening of a vent further upslope, at 2550 m (eccentric eruptive system). The eruption lasted for 3 weeks. Approximately 80% of the total lava volume was erupted from the 2100 m and the 2550 m vents. The collected structural data suggest that the Cisternazza graben developed as a passive local response of the volcanic edifice to the ascent of a north–south eccentric dyke, which eventually reached the ground surface in the Montagnola area (18–19 July). In contrast, the two narrow fracture zones radiating from the summit are interpreted as the lateral propagation, from the conduit of the SE Crater, of north–south- and NE–SW-oriented shallow dykes, 2–3 m wide. The evolution of the fracture pattern together with other volcanological data (magma ascent and effusion rate, eruptive style, petrochemical characteristics of the erupted products, and petrology of xenoliths within magma) suggest that the eccentric and central–lateral eruptions were fed by two distinct magmatic systems. Examples of eccentric activity accompanied by central–lateral events have never been described before at Etna.

During the July^August 2001 eruption of Mt. Etna development of extensional fractures/faults and grabens accompanied magma intrusion and subsequent volcanic activity. During the first days of the eruption, we performed an analysis of attitude, displacement and propagation of fractures and faults exposed on the ground surface in two sites, Torre del Filosofo and Valle del Leone, located along the same fracture system in the region surrounding the Valle del Bove depression on the eastern flank of Mt. Etna. Fractures and faults formed as the consequence of a shallow intruding dyke system that fed the several volcanic centres developed along the fracture system. The investigated sites differ in slope attitude and in geometrical relationships between fractures and slopes. In particular, the fracture system propagated parallel to the gentle slope (67‡ dip) in the Torre del Filosofo area, and perpendicular to the steep slope (V25‡ dip) in the Valle del Leone area. In the Torre del Filosofo area, slight graben subsidence and horizontal extension of the ground surface by about 3 m were recorded. In the Valle del Leone area, extensional faulting forming a larger and deeper graben with horizontal extension of the ground surface by about 10 m was recorded. For the Valle del Leone area, we assessed a downhill dip of 14‡ for the graben master fault at the structural level beneath the graben where the fault dip shallows. These results suggest that dyke intrusion at Mount Etna, and particularly in the region surrounding the Valle del Bove depression, may be at the origin of slope failure and subsequent slumps where boundary conditions, i.e. geometry of dyke, slope dip and initial shear stress, amongst others, favour incipient failures.

In this paper we show that the processes that have shaped the Quaternary surface development of the Apennines in central Italy are all consequences of a single subcrustal process, the upwelling of the mantle. The relationship between gravity and topography shows that mantle convection is responsible for a long-wavelength (150–200 km) topographic bulge over the central Apennines, and stratigraphic evidence suggests this bulge developed in the Quaternary. Active normal faulting is localized at the crest of this bulge and produces internally-draining fault-bounded basins. These basins have been progressively captured by the aggressive headward erosion of major streams that cut down to the sea on the flanks of the regional bulge. The only surviving closed basins are those on the Apennine watershed most distant from the marine base level, where continued normal faulting is still able to provide local subsidence that defeats their capture by the regional drainage network. Understanding the competition between regional capture and local, fault-related subsidence of intermontane basins is crucial for recognizing potentially hazardous active faults in the landscape and also for interpreting the sediment supply to adjacent offshore regions. Central Italy provides a good modern analogue for processes that are probably common in the geological record, particularly on rifted margins and intracontinental rifts, but may not have been fully appreciated.

We report on structural and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) results from the Upper Miocene sediments of the Amantea basin, located on the Tyrrhenian coast of the Calabrian Arc (Southern Italy). The stratigraphic succession of the basin is organized in three depositional sequences, separated by two major angular unconformities. Detailed geologica1 mapping and structural analysis demonstrate that the stratigraphic evolution of the Amantea basin is strongly controlled by a synsedimentary extensional tectonic regime. Severa1 NNE-SSW-trending norma1 fault arrays with large scatter in inclination values have been interpreted as due to a domino faulting mechanism, consistent with a WNW-ESE stretching direction. AMS data have been obtained for 13 sites, both in the not constrained in age first depositional sequence (3 sites), and in the upper Tortonian-lower Messinian clays from the second depositional sequence (10 sites). Al1 the sites show a strong magnetic foliation parallel to the bedding planes, and a well defined magnetic lineation subparallel to the local bedding dip directions. The magnetic lineations cluster around a WNW-ESE trend and are parallel to the stretching directions inferred by fault-slip analysis and basin architecture. These new data then confirm the possibility to use the magnetic lineation to map the strain trajectory in weakly deformed extensional sedimentary basins. Paleomagnetic data (from previous studies) show that the whole Calabrian block underwent a 15°-20° clockwise rotation probably in the Pleistocene, postdating the extensional tectonic events which controlled the Amantea basin geometry. Therefore we suggest for the Amantea basin an original E-W-oriented stretching direction, which may be considered as the older extensional direction characterizing the Late Miocene evolution of the southern Tyrrhenian Sea domain.

We report new paleomagnetic and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) results from upper Tortonian to middle Pleistocene sediments which were deposited upon and adjacent to active thrust structures in southwestern Sicily. The data show that the Plio-Pleistocene sediments from the Belice and Menfi basins (covering the Saccense shelf limestones) underwent any internal shortening after the early Pleistocene (Santernian), as well as any net rotation. Sediments around this area (which overlie basinal Meso-Cenozoic successions) record systematic rotations: one upper Tortonian site to the west is ~30° counterclockwise rotated, while to the east, lower Pliocene to middle lower Pleistocene sites within the Gela Nappe domain show 25° to 56° clockwise (CW) rotations. These data show that the ductile basinal sediments were bent and rotated around the rigid Saccense carbonates during the thin-skinned southward propagation of the orogenic front. We document here that the coastal sediments from the southwestern Gela Nappe underwent both a post middle early Pleistocene ~30° CW rotation and a post middle Pleistocene E-W to ESE-WNW flattening (revealed by AMS). Our data then constrain to the late Pleistocene-Holocene the age of the last shortening episode occurring in the southwestern Gela Nappe front. Pleistocene rotations of similar amount also characterize the Sicanian domain, implying that it was incorporated in the Gela Nappe wedge during the recentmost episodes of deformation. This evidence allows us to better understand the very large (up to 114°) post Mesozoic rotations reported by Channell et al. [1980, 1990] for the Sicanian limestones, as related to both Miocene (or older?) deformational episodes and the Plio-Pleistocene evolution of the Gela Nappe.

A priority task for correct environmental planning is to evaluate Natural Hazards, especially in highly populated areas. In particular, thorough investigations based on different Earth Science techniques must be addressed for the Seismic Hazard Assessment (SHA) in tectonically active areas. Not only the management but also the multidisciplinary analysis of all the SHA-related data sets is best performed using a Geographic Information System. In this paper we show how a researchoriented GIS is built and used in a practical case. The Geochemical Geographic Information System (G2IS) was developed and applied to the Gargano promontory (southern Italy) in the framework of an EC research project, the Geochemical Seismic Zonation (GSZ) Project. This multidisciplinary – multiscaling powerful tool is described in its structure, updating procedures and manipulation techniques. Preliminary results are presented on the detection of geochemically active fault zones and their correlation with remote sensing data and other evidences of seismogenic structures.

A helicopter-borne experimental aeromagnetic survey, covering an area of 200 km2, was performed in the Volturno valley area north of the Roccamonfina volcano and south of Venafro in November 1994. Although severe logistical, instrumental and meteorological conditions significantly reduced the planned coverage, the processed magnetic image still shows a remarkable improvement in the description of the geological and structural features of the area in comparison with previous regional aeromagnetic data. A multi-directional shaded relief anomaly map displays two moderately positive NW magnetic bands associated with lavas, pyroclastics and dykes of the Roccamonfina volcanic district together with N-S, NNE-SSW and NE-SW lineations. A comparative magnetic-geologic map allows correlation with known Pleistocene faults and reveals the existence, especially in the area between Sesto Campano and Presenzano, of a larger presence of high susceptibility dykes than seen in the outcrop, which is dominated by non-magnetic carbonatic rocks. We interpret the curvilinear and intricate pattern of magnetic lineaments as suggestive of an extensional setting along the main NW structures with previous strike slip components and of tectonic activity along a N-S fabric; the latter has no superficial evidence and has also been used for magma upwelling. Overall, this local scale investigation shows both the utility and the need for further efforts in high resolution aeromagnetics in Italy both for geological and environmental purposes similar to those successfully carried out in many other countries throughout the world.