Journal Article

Ground deformation reveals the scale-invariant conduit dynamics driving explosive basaltic eruptions

Maurizio Ripepe, A. Ricciardi, Giorgio Lacanna, Francesco Massimetti, Emanuele Marchetti, Lorenzo Innocenti, M. Della Schiava, D. Mangione, Marcello Bitetto, Diego Coppola, Maria Cristina Silengo, Alessandro Aiuppa, Marco Laiolo, Dario Delle Donne, Takehiro Nishimura, Marco Pistolesi, Riccardo Genco, Mauro Rosi, F. P. La Monica

2021

Overview

The mild activity of basaltic volcanoes is punctuated by violent explosive eruptions that occur without obvious precursors. Modelling the source processes of these sudden blasts is challenging. Here, we use two decades of ground deformation (tilt) records from Stromboli volcano to shed light, with unprecedented detail, on the short-term (minute-scale) conduit processes that drive such violent volcanic eruptions. We find that explosive eruptions, with source parameters spanning seven orders of magnitude, all share a common pre-blast ground inflation trend. We explain this exponential inflation using a model in which pressure build-up is caused by the rapid expansion of volatile-rich magma rising from depth into a shallow (<400 m) resident magma conduit. We show that the duration and amplitude of this inflation trend scales with the eruption magnitude, indicating that the explosive dynamics obey the same (scale-invariant) conduit process. This scale-invariance of pre-explosion ground deformation may usher in a new era of short-term eruption forecasting. Here, the authors use 20 years of ground deformation data from Stromboli and correlate this data with eruptive records. They find that duration and amplitude of the inflation trend scales with eruption magnitude, indicating that explosive dynamics obeys the same (scale-invariant) conduit process.

• Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC,Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 704/2151/2809 / 704/2151/598 / Amplitudes / Deformation / Explosions / ground deformation / ground deformation, conduit dynamics, early warning / Humanities and Social Sciences / Invariants / Magma / multidisciplinary / Q / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Stromboli / Stromboli; ground deformation; tilt / tilt / Viscosity / Volcanic activity / Volcanic eruptions / Volcanoes