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On the ground deformation of Campi Flegrei and Vesuvio since 1993 using SAR data

Luca Crescentini, Giada Salicone, Antonella Amoruso

Abstract

Naples, Italy, lies between the Campi Flegrei and Vesuvio volcanoes in one of the world's most dangerous regions. After 3,000 years of dormancy and centuries of subsidence, Campi Flegrei erupted in 1538, preceded by increasing seismicity and uplift. Since the 1950s it has experienced intermittent unrest, with four major episodes; the 1982-1984 episode was followed by prolonged subsidence. Uplift has been continuous since the early 2000s. The last Plinian eruption of Vesuvio occurred in 79 AD, followed by sub-Plinian eruptions in 472 and 1631, and semi-persistent activity until 1944. The eruptive histories of Campi Flegrei and Vesuvio are different, and the products erupted in the past have different characteristics, but they are compatible with the possible existence of a common 8-10 km deep magmatic layer. Geophysical studies support the existence of this layer. Recent studies have used ERS/ENVISAT (1993-2010) and Sentinel1 (2015-present) SAR data to show that ground deformation during the uplift of Campi Flegrei was partly due to sources about 8 km deep, that a deep depressurisation occurred beneath Vesuvio in the early 2000s, and that possible deep interactions between the two volcanoes occurred between the subsidence and uplift of Campi Flegrei. For 2010-2015, ESA's PP0094512 project has made it possible to generate deformation time series from Radarsat2 images over the entire volcanic area, using a specific procedure based on various free or open source software. The results obtained by combining the ERS/ENVISAT, Radarsat2 and Sentinel1 data are presented, in particular the evolution of non-moving, statistically independent deformation sources.