Skip to content

The dynamic summer of 2024 at Etna volcano documented by UAS: morphological changes and their gravimetric effects

Emanuela De Beni1, Cristina Proietti1, Massimo Cantarero1, Filippo Greco1, Luca Timoteo Mirabella1, Alfio Alex Messina1, Daniele Carbone1, Juraj Papčo2, Pavol Zahorec3, Peter Vajda2

  • Affiliations: 1 Istituto Nazionale di geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Etneo, Sezione di Catania, Italy 2 Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Theoretical Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Slovakia 3 Earth Science Institute of the SAS Geophysical Institute Dúbravská Bratislava, Slovak Republic 

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Tuesday 16:30 - 18:30, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 112

  • Programme No: 3.15.17

  • Theme 3 > Session 15

Abstract

From mid-June 2024, the Voragine (VOR), one of the four summit craters of Etna volcano (Italy), entered an unrest phase with mild Strombolian activity. Spatter, scoria, and bombs progressively built up a scoria cone. After two weeks of activity, lava began to flow from VOR towards Bocca Nuova crater (BN). On July 4th, the first of six paroxysms occurred at VOR. The favorable weather conditions allowed for Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) surveys to be carried out after each paroxysm until the conclusion of this activity on August 15th. The UAS surveys, performed with visible and thermal cameras and a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) module, enable monitoring the activity, updating the topography, mapping, and quantifying the volcanic products. The availability of a pre-eruption UAS survey (April 2024) allowed us to detail the morphometrical changes in Etna's summit area. Temporal changes in topography also affect the local gravity field. We evaluate the gravimetric effects of the newly extruded masses, i.e., of the spatiotemporal changes of the topographic relief, on gravity and the vertical gravity gradient (VGG). In particular, the VGG  is significantly affected by the nearby rugged topography and its changes. Our previous studies show that VGG on Etna reaches quite significant values (we measured -455 µGal/m at the NE crater rim). VGG can be predicted (calculated) based on the gravitational effect of the topography. Such prediction must account for the latest temporal morphological changes. Therefore, we assess the spatial extent and size of the impact of morphological changes on VGG.