One year of geochemical monitoring of groundwater in the Abruzzi region after the 2009 earthquakes.

The presence of a deep and inorganic source of CO2 has been recently recognized in Italy on the basis of the deeply derived carbon dissolved in the groundwater. In particular, the regional map of CO2 Earth degassing shows that two large degassing structures (Tuscan Roman degassing structure, TRDS, and Campanian degassing structure, CDS) affect the Tyrrhenian side of the Italian peninsula. The comparison between the map of CO2 Earth degassing and of the location of the Italian earthquakes highlights that the anomalous CO2 flux suddenly disappears in the Apennine in correspondence of a narrow band where most of the seismicity concentrates. A previous conceptual model proposed that in this area, at the eastern borders of TRDS and CDS, the CO2 from the mantle wedge intrudes the crust and accumulate in structural traps generating over-pressurized reservoirs. These CO2 over-pressurized levels can play a major role in triggering the Apennine earthquakes. The 2009 Abruzzo earthquakes, like previous seismic crises in the Northern Apennine, occurred at the border of the TRDS, suggesting also in this case a possible role played by deeply derived fluids in the earthquake generation. Detailed hydro-geochemical campaigns, with a monthly frequency, started immediately after the main shock of the 6th of April 2009. The new campaigns include the main springs of the area which were previously studied in detail, during a campaign performed ten years ago, constituting a pre-crisis reference case. Almost one year of geochemical data of the main dissolved ions, of dissolved gases (CO2, CH4, N2, Ar, He) and of the stable isotopes of the water (H, O), CO2 (13C) and He (3He/4He), highlight both that the epicentral area of L’Aquila earthquakes is affected by an important process of CO2 Earth degassing and that that the gases dissolved in the groundwater reflects the input in to the aquifers of a deep gas phase, CO2- rich, with an high He content and with low 3He/4He ratios, similar to the gases emitted by natural manifestations located in the northern Apennines which are fed by deep pressurized reservoirs. Furthermore a systematic increase in the content of the deeply derived CO2 dissolved in the aquifers occurred respect to the July 1997 samples. This increase, followed by a gentle decline of the anomaly, can be compatible with the occurrence of an episode of deep CO2 degassing concurrently with the earthquakes. The origin of this regional variation is under investigation and, at the present moment, an unambiguous interpretation of the data is not possible because the lack of a systematic monitoring of the springs before the seismic events and because eventual seasonal effects on observed variation in CO2 flux are still under investigatio

Carbon dixide emission in Italy: Shallow crustal sources or subduction related fluid recycling?

Anomalous non-volcanic CO2 release in central and southern Italy has been highlighted by ten years of detailed investigations on Earth degassing processes. Two regional degassing structures are located in the Tyrrhenian sector where more then 200 emissions of CO2 are located and has been recently included in the first web based catalogue of degassing sites (http://googas.ov.ingv.it). The total amount of CO2 released by the two structures were evaluated to be > 2×1011 mol a-1 ( >10% of the estimated global volcanic CO2 emission). The anomalous flux of CO2 suddenly disappears in the Apennine in correspondence of a narrow band where most of the Italian seismicity concentrates. Here, at depth, the gas accumulates in crustal traps generating CO2 overpressurised reservoirs. These overpressured structures are, in our opinion, one of the main cause of Apennine earthquake activation processes. The results of these investigations suggested that Earth degassing in Italy may have an active primary role in the geodynamics of the region. What is the origin of gas? The large extension of the degassing structures and petrologic data suggested that the main source of gas is a mantle metasomatised by the fluids produced in the subdacted slabs. However, has been also hypothesised the presence of localised crustal source of the gas. This matter will be discussed on the base of unpublished isotopic data of the main gas emissions

The development of a new database of gas emissions in Italy: a collaborative web environment for collecting and publishing data on natural gas emissions.

In spite of the large extension of the Earth degassing process and of the correlations with geodynamic processes and large scale geochemical processes, the Earth degassing process in the world is still poorly known. Beside the scientific interest on studying gas emissions, a better knowledge of the degassing process is crucial for mitigate gas hazard correlated to the release of dangerous gases (e.g., CO2, H2S) from natural emissions, that, like in Italy, caused many lethal accidents to animals and humans. After years of data collection organized on a base of a single research group, institution, or project, there is clearly a need for common frameworks that allow to aggregate data in order to observe the phenomena at various scale. The development of Googas in 2007 (Chiodini et al., 2008), funded by the Italian Civil Defence and focused on the serialization of data and the publication of a web map of gas emissions, was the first attempt to create a collaborative database on gas emissions. Googas, that represented an important advance in the knowledge of the phenomenon at the national scale, is however a static representation of the results of the project. Starting from the Googas experience, we are now extending the capabilities of Googas on the user side, developing a new web environment for collecting and publishing data of gas natural emissions dynamically. The collaborative environment allows researchers from different institutions to collect data in the most seamless way, and data to be published directly from within the same system. The web interface allows to insert data interactively into a spatially referred relational database management system. Moreover, researchers are aware of the activity of the others and can access data, leave comments as soon as data is being inserted. This new system aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation among researchers. As gas emissions are inherently referred to geographic locations, published digital data will be available in several formats, including the ones conformant to Open Gis Consortium (OGC) standards, for an easy access by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The publication of data on the website will be ruled by a licensing system that facilitates and encourages the scientific method processes. The license will allow to use and distribute the data, to produce works from the data and to build up new data from it, as long as these rules are maintained and the attribution to the original work is being referred. In this way, the efforts to publish the data are balanced by the guarantees that the data's access will remain open. This new database of Italian gas emissions is an interesting environment where researchers can insert data in a common interface asynchronously and the results are immediately tangible. The development of this project is undergoing and researchers and developers interact closely, introducing and testing new features during the development phase. We believe that the development of this new environment represent a starting point towards the foundation of a collaborative database of gas emissions at global scale.PublishedSan Francisco California USA5.10. TTC - Sistema webope

Carbon dioxide degassing and thermal energy release in the Monte Amiata volcanic-geothermal area (Italy)

The quaternary volcanic complex of Mount Amiata is located in southern Tuscany (Italy) and represents the most recent manifestation of the Tuscan Magmatic Province. The region is characterised by a large thermal anomaly and by the presence of numerous CO2-rich gas emissions and geothermal features, mainly located at the periphery of the volcanic complex. Two geothermal systems are located, at increasing depths, in the carbonate and metamorphic formations beneath the volcanic complex. The shallow volcanic aquifer is separated from the deep geothermal systems by a low permeability unit (Ligurian Unit). A measured CO2 discharge through soils of 1.8 109 mol a 1 shows that large amounts of CO2 move from the deep reservoir to the surface. A large range in d13CTDIC ( 21.07 to +3.65) characterises the waters circulating in the aquifers of the region and the mass and isotopic balance of TDIC allows distinguishing a discharge of 0.3 109 mol a 1 of deeply sourced CO2 in spring waters. The total natural CO2 discharge (2.1 109 mol a 1) is slightly less than minimum CO2 output estimated by an indirect method (2.8 109 mol a 1), but present-day release of 5.8 109 mol a 1 CO2 from deep geothermal wells may have reduced natural CO2 discharge. The heat transported by groundwater, computed considering the increase in temperature from the infiltration area to the discharge from springs, is of the same order of magnitude, or higher, than the regional conductive heat flow (>200 mWm 2) and reaches extremely high values (up to 2700mWm 2) in the north-eastern part of the study area. Heat transfer occurs mainly by conductive heating in the volcanic aquifer and by uprising gas and vapor along fault zones and in those areas where low permeability cover is lacking. The comparison of CO2 flux, heat flow and geological setting shows that near surface geology and hydrogeological setting play a central role in determining CO2 degassing and heat transfer patterns