A case study of eruptive fissure opening at Mount Etna

AbstractThis paper deals with the online offset detection in GPS time series recorded in volcanic areas. The interest for this problem lies in the fact that an offset can indicate the opening of eruptive fissures. A Change Point Detection algorithm is applied to carry out, in an online framework, the offset detection. Experimental results show that the algorithm is able to recognize the offset generated by the Mount Etna eruption, occurred on December 24, 2018, with a delay of about 4 samples, corresponding to 40 min, compared to the best offline detection. Furthermore, analysis of the trade-off between success and false alarms is carried out and discussed

PlatEMotion: a Matlab® Tool for Geodetic Reference Frame Definition

An important concept related to plate tectonics theory is the internal rigidity of tectonic plates together with Euler’s theorem, which allows modelling the relative motion of plates quantitatively. Roughly speaking, plates can be viewed as rigid caps on the surface of a sphere. The motion of a plate on a sphere can be described by a rotation about a virtual axis that passes through the centre of the sphere (Euler’s theorem). This implies that an angular velocity vector originating at the centre of the Earth can describe motions of plates. The most widespread parameterization of such a vector is using latitude and longitude to describe the location where the rotation axis cuts the surface of the Earth, and a rotation rate that corresponds to the magnitude of the angular velocity. Formally, the latitude and longitude of the angular velocity vector constitute the so called ‘Euler pole’. Here, we describe the main features of the developed software tool, called PlatE-Motion (PEM), which allows calculating both the expected velocity value for any point located on the Earth providing a Euler pole (direct problem) and inferring the Euler pole parameters by inverting the observed velocities at a set of sites located on a rigid block (inverse problem). PEM is developed in Matlab® framework and is designed for easy-to-use file exchange with the GAMIT/GLOBK software package [Herring et al., 2006], and has a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The file formats of the data used by PEM are not only restricted to the GAMIT/GLOBK file formats, but they can also be simple ASCII files generated from other kind of software. The tool is available for the scientific community. The interested user can freely obtain it by simply contacting the author

Improved glucose tolerance in mice receiving intraperitoneal transplantation of normal fat tissue

Aims/hypothesis: The association between increased (visceral) fat mass, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus is well known. Yet, it is unclear whether the mere increase in intra-abdominal fat mass, or rather functional alterations in fat tissue in obesity contribute to the development of insulin resistance in obese patients. Here we attempted to isolate the metabolic effect of increased fat mass by fat tissue transplantation. Methods: Epididymal fat pads were removed from male C57Bl6/J mice and transplanted intraperitoneally into male littermates (recipients), increasing the combined perigonadal fat mass by 50% (p < 0.005). At 4 and 8weeks post-transplantation, glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed, and insulin, NEFA and adipokines measured. Results: Circulating levels of NEFA, adiponectin and leptin were not significantly different between transplanted and sham-operated control mice, while results of the postprandial insulin tolerance test were similar between the two groups. In contrast, under fasting conditions, the mere increase in intra-abdominal fat mass resulted in decreased plasma glucose levels (6.9 ± 0.4 vs 8.1 ± 0.3mmol/l, p = 0.03) and a ∼20% lower AUC in the glucose tolerance test (p = 0.02) in transplanted mice. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was 4.1 ± 0.4 in transplanted mice (vs 6.2 ± 0.7 in sham-operated controls) (p = 0.02), suggesting improved insulin sensitivity. Linear regression modelling revealed that while total body weight positively correlated, as expected, with HOMA-IR (β: 0.728, p = 0.006), higher transplanted fat mass correlated with lower HOMA-IR (β: −0.505, p = 0.031). Conclusions/interpretation: Increasing intra-abdominal fat mass by transplantation of fat from normal mice improved, rather than impaired, fasting glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, achieving an effect opposite to the expected metabolic consequence of increased visceral fat in obesit

Multidisciplinary Management of Pituitary Apoplexy

Pituitary apoplexy is a rare clinical syndrome due to ischemic or haemorrhagic necrosis of the pituitary gland which complicates 2–12% of pituitary tumours, especially nonfunctioning adenomas. In many cases, it results in severe neurological, ophthalmological, and endocrinological consequences and may require prompt surgical decompression. Pituitary apoplexy represents a rare medical emergency that necessitates a multidisciplinary approach. Modalities of treatment and times of intervention are still largely debated. Therefore, the management of patients with pituitary apoplexy is often empirically individualized and clinical outcome is inevitably related to the multidisciplinary team’s skills and experience. This review aims to highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the management of pituitary apoplexy and to discuss modalities of presentation, treatment, and times of intervention

Monitoring extreme meteo-marine events in the Mediterranean area using the microseism (Medicane Apollo case study)

Microseism is the continuous background seismic signal caused by the interaction between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the solid Earth. Several studies have dealt with the relationship between microseisms and the tropical cyclones, but none focused on the small-scale tropical cyclones that occur in the Mediterranean Sea, called Medicanes. In this work, we analysed the Medicane Apollo which impacted the eastern part of Sicily during the period 25 October–5 November 2021 causing heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts and violent sea waves. We investigated the microseism accompanying this extreme Mediterranean weather event, and its relationship with the sea state retrieved from hindcast maps and wave buoys. The spectral and amplitude analyses showed the space–time variation of the microseism amplitude. In addition, we tracked the position of Apollo during the time using two different methods: (i) a grid search method; (ii) an array analysis. We obtained a good match between the real position of Apollo and the location constraint by both methods. This work shows that it is possible to extract information on Medicanes from microseisms for both research and monitoring purposes.peer-reviewe

Microseism and medicane Apollo : a new approach to investigate the Mediterranean extreme weather events

Microseism is the most continuous and ubiquitous seismic signal on the Earth and is caused by the interaction between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the Solid Earth. In literature, there are several studies that deal with the relationship between microseism and cyclonic activity considering in particular hurricanes, tropical cyclones and typhoons. However, the relationships between microseism and the small-scale tropical cyclones that occur in the Mediterranean Sea, called Medicanes, have never been analysed. For this reason, we considered the Medicane Apollo, which developed in the Ionian Sea and impacted the eastern part of Sicily during the period 25th October to 5th November 2021 causing heavy rainfall (> 400 mm/48h), strong wind gusts (104 km/h) and violent sea waves (significant wave height > 3.5 m). Furthermore, the heavy rainfall induced by the presence of Apollo, caused damage to infrastructure and agriculture forcing the Sicilian regional government to declare a state of emergency for 32 municipalities (in the provinces of Catania, Messina, Siracusa and Ragusa) that were mostly affected by the Medicane Apollo.peer-reviewe

MT. ETNA FEBRUARY-APRIL 2013 ERUPTION

European FP7 MED-SUV (MEditerranean SUpersite Volcanoes). Grant Number: 308665 European Research Council European FP7 (FP/2007-2013)/ERC. Grant Number: 279802 SIGMA (Sistema Integrato di sensori in ambiente cloud per la Gestione Multirischio Avanzata

A new user-friendly tool for rapid modelling of ground deformation

Inverting geodetic data, in particular the ground deformation measurements, currently represents a mandatory step when analysing volcanic and/or tectonic dynamics. Indeed, inversion of such data allows researchers to infer the geometry and mechanisms of volcanic sources or tectonic faults. Here, it is presented a user-friendly software tool with a graphical user interface for easy and rapid inversion of deformation data in volcanic and tectonic contexts. The software runs in the MATLAB framework and deals with most of station-based kinds of ground deformation data, allowing simultaneous inversions of different data using different optimization algorithms. The developed software implements most of the known and tested analytical models of deformation, and is able to invert simultaneously multiple deformation sources, even of different types. Thus, it can be considered as a multi-data multi-model inversion tool. The software is open source and freely released. The capability of the proposed software has been tested for a practical case study on Mt. Etna (Italy) to analyse the actual inflation period. It has been found that since middle 2014 the constant rate of recharging ranges between and m3 per day at a depth in the range of 5 and 7 km bsl. A further case of study has been addressed to show an application of rapid fault ruptures modelling for earthquakes that produce measurable ground displacements. The model obtained for the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake is consistent with the ones proposed in literature.Published60-695V. Processi eruttivi e post-eruttiviJCR Journa

PlatEMotion: a Matlab® Tool for Geodetic Reference Frame Definition

An important concept related to plate tectonics theory is the internal rigidity of tectonic plates together with Euler’s theorem, which allows modelling the relative motion of plates quantitatively. Roughly speaking, plates can be viewed as rigid caps on the surface of a sphere. The motion of a plate on a sphere can be described by a rotation about a virtual axis that passes through the centre of the sphere (Euler’s theorem). This implies that an angular velocity vector originating at the centre of the Earth can describe motions of plates. The most widespread parameterization of such a vector is using latitude and longitude to describe the location where the rotation axis cuts the surface of the Earth, and a rotation rate that corresponds to the magnitude of the angular velocity. Formally, the latitude and longitude of the angular velocity vector constitute the so called ‘Euler pole’. Here, we describe the main features of the developed software tool, called PlatE-Motion (PEM), which allows calculating both the expected velocity value for any point located on the Earth providing a Euler pole (direct problem) and inferring the Euler pole parameters by inverting the observed velocities at a set of sites located on a rigid block (inverse problem). PEM is developed in Matlab® framework and is designed for easy-to-use file exchange with the GAMIT/GLOBK software package [Herring et al., 2006], and has a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The file formats of the data used by PEM are not only restricted to the GAMIT/GLOBK file formats, but they can also be simple ASCII files generated from other kind of software. The tool is available for the scientific community. The interested user can freely obtain it by simply contacting the authorsIstituto Nazionale di Geofisica e VulcanologiaPublished1.9. Rete GPS nazionaleope