Seismic Tomography Experiment at Italy's Stromboli Volcano

From 25 November to 2 December 2006, the first active seismic tomography experiment at Stromboli volcano was carried out with the cooperation of four Italian research institutions. Researchers on board the R/V Urania of the Italian National Council of Research (CNR), which was equipped with a battery of four 210- cubic- inch generated injection air guns (GI guns), fired more than 1500 offshore shots along profiles and rings around the volcano.DPC/INGV agreement 2004-2006Published269-2701.4. TTC - Sorveglianza sismologica delle aree vulcaniche attive1.5. TTC - Sorveglianza dell'attività eruttiva dei vulcani3.6. Fisica del vulcanismoN/A or not JCRreserve

Seismological constraints for the dyke emplacement of the July-August 2001 lateral eruption at Mt. Etna volcano, Italy

In this paper we report seismological evidence regarding the emplacement of the dike that fed the July 18 - August 9, 2001 lateral eruption at Mt. Etna volcano. The shallow intrusion and the opening of the eruptive fracture system, which mostly occurred during July 12, and July 18, were accompanied by one of the most intense seismic swarms of the last 20 years. A total of 2694 earthquakes (1 £ Md £ 3.9) were recorded from the beginning of the swarm (July 12) to the end of the eruption (August 9). Seismicity shows the upward migration of the dike from the basement to the relatively thin volcanic pile. A clear hypocentral migration was observed, well constraining the upwards propagation of a near-vertical dike, oriented roughly N-S, and located a few kilometers south of the summit region. Earthquake distribution and orientation of the P-axes from focal mechanisms indicate that the swarm was caused by the local stress source related to the dike intrusion

Earthquake rupture forecasts for the mps19 seismic hazard model of Italy

In recent years, new approaches for developing earthquake rupture forecasts (ERFs) have been proposed to be used as an input for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA). Zone-based approaches with seismicity rates derived from earthquake catalogs are commonly used in many countries as the standard for national seismic hazard models. In Italy, a single zone-based ERF is currently the basis for the official seismic hazard model. In this contribution, we present eleven new ERFs, including five zone-based, two smoothed seismicity-based, two fault-based, and two geodetic-based, used for a new PSH model in Italy. The ERFs were tested against observed seismicity and were subject to an elicitation procedure by a panel of PSHA experts to verify the scientific robustness and consistency of the forecasts with respect to the observations. Tests and elicitation were finalized to weight the ERFs. The results show a good response to the new inputs to observed seismicity in the last few centuries. The entire approach was a first attempt to build a community-based set of ERFs for an Italian PSHA model. The project involved a large number of seismic hazard practitioners, with their knowledge and experience, and the development of different models to capture and explore a large range of epistemic uncertainties in building ERFs, and represents an important step forward for the new national seismic hazard model

TOMO-ETNA experiment at Etna volcano: Activities on land

In the present paper we describe the on-land field operations integrated in the TOMO-ETNA experiment carried out in June-November 2014 at Mt. Etna volcano and surrounding areas. This terrestrial campaign consists in the deployment of 90 short-period portable three-component seismic stations, 17 broadband seismometers and the coordination with 133 permanent seismic station belonging to Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). This temporary seismic network recorded active and passive seismic sources. Active seismic sources were generated by an array of air-guns mounted in the Spanish oceanographic vessel “Sarmiento de Gamboa” with a power capacity of up to 5200 cubic inches. In total more than 26,000 shots were fired and more than 450 local and regional earthquakes were recorded. We describe the whole technical procedure followed to guarantee the success of this complex seismic experiment. We started with the description of the location of the potential safety places to deploy the portable network and the products derived from this search (a large document including full characterization of the sites, owners and indication of how to arrive to them). A full technical description of the seismometers and seismic sources is presented. We show how the portable seismic network was deployed, maintained and recovered in different stages. The large international collaboration of this experiment is reflected in the participation of more than 75 researchers, technicians and students from different institutions and countries in the on-land activities. The main objectives of the experiment were achieved with great success.PublishedS04272SR. VULCANI - Servizi e ricerca per la SocietàJCR Journalope

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Volcanological inferences from seismic-strain tensor computations at Mt. Etna Volcano, Sicily

Kostrov's (1974) algorithm for seismic-strain tensor computations, in the version implemented by Wyss et al. (1992a) for error estimates, has been applied to shear-type earthquakes occurring beneath the Etna volcano during 1990-1996. Space-time variations of strain orientations and amplitudes have been examined jointly with ground-deformation and gravimetric data collected in the same period and reported in the literature. Taking also into account the information available from volcanological observations and structural geology, we propose a model assuming that hydraulic pressure by magma emplaced in nearly north-south vertical structures produces the E-W orientation of the maximum compressive strain found in the upper 10 km beneath the crater area. In contrast, regional tectonics deriving from the slow, north-south convergence between the African and European plates appear to play a dominant role in the generation of stress and strain fields at crustal depths deeper than 10 km below the volcano. According to our interpretation, the progressive ascent of magma through the upper crust prior to eruption produces the observed gravity changes, cone inflation and unusual seismic strain rate in the upper 10 km associated with a more sharply defined seismic deformation regime (i.e. very small confidence limits of the epsilon 1 orientation). In agreement with this model, deflation revealed by ground-deformation data during the course of the major 1991-1993 eruption was accompanied by a practically nil level of shallow seismicity

The dynamics of the 2001 Etna eruption as seen by full moment tensor analysis

The Mt. Etna eruption of July 2001 was announced by severe seismic activity and by the opening of a 7-km-long zone of densely distributed fractures. The large amount of data collected gave a unique opportunity to study the magma migration process and to infer the position and geometry of the uprising dyke. Results from multidisciplinary approaches suggest that the observed phenomenology was the result of the rapid intrusion of a vertical dyke, oriented roughly N\u2013S and located a few km south of the summit region. To add new constraints to the dynamics of the eruption process, in this study we determine the full seismic moment tensors of 61 earthquakes, selected among those occurring between July 12 and July 18 (Md 65 2.2), located in a depth ranging from 1 km above sea level (a.s.l.) to 3 km below sea level (b.s.l.). At the beginning of the seismic swarm, the dominant component of the seismic source tensor is double-couple percentage (around 65 per cent on average) statistical significant at 95 per cent confidence level and in the following hours the non-double-couple components increase at the expenses of the double-couple. Such observations are related well with the system of fractures formed just before the eruption, whereas the increasing non-double-couple components can be explained as the response of the confining rocks to the rising magma and degassing processes. The type of focal mechanisms retrieved are predominantly of normal fault type (44 per cent), strike slip (30 per cent) and thrust mechanisms (9 per cent), and outline a scenario that concurs with the stress regime induced by a dyke injection. The space\u2013time analysis of seismic source locations and source moment tensors (1) confirms the evidence of a vertical dyke emplacement that fed the 2001 lateral eruption and (2) adds new insights to support the hypothesis of the injection of a second aborted dyke, 2 km SE from the fractures zone

Volcanological inferences from seismic-strain tensor computations at Mt. Etna Volcano, Sicily

Kostrov's (1974) algorithm for seismic-strain tensor computations, in the version implemented by Wyss et al. (1992a) for error estimates, has been applied to shear-type earthquakes occurring beneath the Etna volcano during 1990-1996. Space-time variations of strain orientations and amplitudes have been examined jointly with ground-deformation and gravimetric data collected in the same period and reported in the literature. Taking also into account the information available from volcanological observations and structural geology, we propose a model assuming that hydraulic pressure by magma emplaced in nearly north-south vertical structures produces the E-W orientation of the maximum compressive strain found in the upper 10 km beneath the crater area. In contrast, regional tectonics deriving from the slow, north-south convergence between the African and European plates appear to play a dominant role in the generation of stress and strain fields at crustal depths deeper than 10 km below the volcano. According to our interpretation, the progressive ascent of magma through the upper crust prior to eruption produces the observed gravity changes, cone inflation and unusual seismic strain rate in the upper 10 km associated with a more sharply defined seismic deformation regime (i.e. very small confidence limits of the epsilon 1 orientation). In agreement with this model, deflation revealed by ground-deformation data during the course of the major 1991-1993 eruption was accompanied by a practically nil level of shallow seismicity.Published318-330JCR Journalope

Insight into Mt. Etna (Italy) kinematics during the 2002–2003 eruption as inferred from seismic stress and strain tensors

Seismic activity linked to the 2002–03 Mt. Etna eruption was investigated by analyzing the Md > 2.3 earthquakes. The results of 3D relocation were used to compute fault plane solutions and a selected dataset was inverted to determine stress and strain tensors. The analysis revealed a complex kinematic response of the eastern flank dominated by fast stress propagation and reorientation. We hypothesize that a vertical dike intruded the southern flank, generating an extensional regime that triggered a radial intrusion in the northeast sector of the volcano. The combined effects gave rise to a rotation of the stress tensor that controlled the activation of the Pernicana fault system. The volcanic and tectonic interactions produced a second reorientation of the stress tensor, causing a structural response in the southeast lower flank. The overall result of the deformation processes observed during the eruption was an E-W extension on the eastern flank of the volcano