Understanding Mount Etna
Mount Etna is one of the most active and most comprehensively monitored volcanoes in the world, with hundreds of instruments on the surface providing terabytes of data on its activity. The Improve project team are investigating signals from the volcano and how they relate to magma dynamics, as Dr Paolo Papale explains.
As one of the best monitored and also most active volcanoes in the world, Mount Etna is the ideal location to study the behaviour of magma below the earth’s surface and its impact on volcano dynamics. Several hundred instruments are permanently deployed on the surface of Mount Etna and in the surrounding area, which provide large volumes of data on the volcano’s activity. “We are capable of seeing even very small ground movements at Mount Etna, over hundreds of square kilometres in the surrounding area,” says Dr Paolo Papale, Research Director of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). As coordinator of the Improve training network, Dr Papale is part of a team analysing data from Etna, in order to gain deeper insights into volcano dynamics. “We collect many different signals from multi-parametric instrumental systems placed on Mount Etna that record continuously in real-time,” he outlines. “We investigate those signals in order to understand them and to relate them to the dynamics of magma at depths.”
Signals from Etna
A wide variety of signals are being considered in this research, including ground deformation and shaking, gas release and changes in gravity, which is related to movements of mass and variations in density. Historically, the study of ground motion around volcanoes has been divided into two disciplines, related to two extremes in terms of timescales.
“One is the study of ground-shaking during earthquakes, which is very rapid, and is recorded with seismic instruments. The other is ground movements related to the inflation or deflation of the volcanic system, which occur over longer timescales. We record the deformation of the system over days, months, years, even decades,” explains Dr Papale. Between high frequency ground-shaking and very slow ground motion there is a large gap, which Dr Papale says is a major topic of interest
in the project. “The numerical simulations that have been done suggest that ground movements in this hidden window can be very important,” he says. The focus of attention in the project is on this window, with researchers placing instruments on the volcano that are designed to record signals and gather data
band, which represents a new dimension in the study of active volcanoes,” he outlines. The instruments, including infrasonic microphones, broadband seismometers, tiltmeters, high-speed visible and infra-red cameras, and prototypal high-frequency GPS receivers, were placed mainly in the upper part of Mount Etna, which
“We collect many different signals from multi-parametric instrumental systems placed on Mount Etna that record continuously in real-time, complemented by data from field experiments and by sophisticated numerical simulations. We aim at developing a more comprehensive understanding of magma dynamics leading to volcanic eruptions.”
over the period between one minute and one day. The project team is conducting experimental, numerical and field work on ground movements over that period, which Dr Papale hopes will open up new perspectives in the study of active volcanoes. “We are bringing together researchers from several disciplines to try and understand the signals in this frequency
will help researchers learn more about volcano dynamics at shallow depths. “We concentrated the instruments in an array geometry in a comparatively small region close to the top to see signals from shallow depths in the volcano,” continues Dr Papale. This geometry allows researchers to accurately constrain the region from which the signals emanate and also to
characterise those signals. Alongside the permanent instrumentation on Mount Etna, this provides a wealth of signals for researchers to analyse and interpret, with the goal of building a fuller understanding of the volcano. “We want to understand how things happen, such as how magma is displaced and how it moves through different reservoirs in the volcanic system. What kinds of signals are then released?” explains Dr Papale. The ultimate aim is to develop the capability to accurately forecast eruptions, and protect the many
millions of people across the world who live in close proximity to active volcanoes, yet Dr Papale says it remains difficult to interpret these signals.
Instruments on Etna
An effective and reliable forecasting system must be built on solid foundations, and so great emphasis is placed on scientific rigour in the project. By working with many different instruments and data sources, researchers are able to ensure their findings are robust. “We need to be careful in our research.
That’s why we need to place so many different instruments and record so many different things,” says Dr Papale. Alongside experimental, numerical and physical studies, the project’s agenda also includes machine learning research, looking to identify similarities and differences between volcanic signals. “We are also working on automatic signal recognition through machine learning techniques, looking at both data from the volcano and synthetic data,” continues Dr Papale. “If we find some relevant similarities in the data, robustly rooted in the processes we are studying, then we can use numerical simulations to build a deeper understanding.”
This can then help researchers identify where instruments should be placed in order to maximise their observational value and guide further investigation into volcano dynamics beyond the project. Strong relationships have been forged between the partners in Improve, which Dr Papale says will provide a kind of seed for the development of future research projects. “Improve is contributing to the establishment of a European community of volcanologists, and we will continue to work together in future,” he says. “We want to help create a strongly interconnected European research community.”
Positioning of an infrasonic sensor close to the top of Mount Etna for the multi-parametric experiment in summer 2023.
Mount Etna erupting. Photo by Boris Behncke.
The IMPROVE early career researchers visiting the top of Mount Etna during the multi-parametric experiment in summer 2023.
IMPROVE
Innovative Multi-disciplinary European Research training network on VolcanoEs
Project Objectives
IMPROVE is a highly cooperative multidisciplinary network of European Research Institutes and Small-Medium Enterprises. In IMPROVE, 15 Early Stage Researchers are trained to innovative research in volcano science from monitoring and prospecting to advanced lab experiments, High Performance Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. Two volcanic target areas are Mount Etna in Sicily and the Krafla caldera in Iceland.
Project Funding
IMPROVE is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Training Network, with full title: “Innovative Multi-disciplinary European Research training network on VolcanoEs”. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 858092.
Project Partners
There are 9 academic partners + 3 industrial partners in the project.
https://www.improve-etn.eu/index.php/partners/
Contact Details
Paolo Papale, Research Director
Chair, Class of Exact Sciences, Academia Europaea Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
Sezione di Pisa, Via Cesare Battisti, 53 56125 Pisa, Italy
T: +39 050 8311931
E: paolo.papale@ingv.it
W: https://www.improve-etn.eu/ Andrew Mitchell
E: a.p.mitchell@lancaster.ac.uk
Clothilde Biensan
E: clothilde.biensan@ingv.it
Paolo Papale
Clothilde Biensan
Andrew Mitchell
Paolo Papale is Research Director at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) of Italy.
Clothilde Biensan is a PhD candidate in Earth Science at Sapienza University in Rome (Italy), working within the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) in Rome. Her research focuses on assessing the fundamental parameters that control the different modes of active degassing and their transitions at mafic volcanoes.
Andrew Mitchell is a PhD researcher at Lancaster University. His research focuses on using analogue models to help understand the relationship between volcano deformation and magma intrusions.
IMPROVE Training Network
The Improve project is a training network, in which fifteen early stage researchers (ESRs) are investigating different topics around volcano dynamics. We spoke to two ESRs participating in the project, Andrew Mitchell and Clothilde Biensan, about their research at Mount Etna and its wider importance in understanding volcanoes and forecasting eruptions.
Clothilde Biensan
EU Researcher: What topic are you addressing in the Improve project?
Clothilde Biensan: I’m investigating degassing on Mount Etna. It is an open conduit volcano, so we see continuous degassing behaviour. I’m using a setup that has been developed at the INGV called SKATE (System for Kinematic Acquisition of Transient Eruptions) to acquire data.
EUR: Are you trying to relate information about degassing to the behaviour of the volcano as a whole?
CB: Yes, I’m trying to understand the behaviour and the transitions that we can observe. There are sensors in the setup that acquire visible, thermal and microphone data simultaneously and continuously.
EUR: As Etna is continuously degassing, is it difficult to relate those events to seismic behaviour?
CB: When there is a degassing event without particles, it can be correlated to a seismic signal due to in-conduit explosion or implosion of gas bubbles and also to the penetration of the acoustic wave generated by the explosion. But in our case, it is quite challenging to identify a good signature with the instruments that we have in the field, as the degassing events we observed in July 2023 were small.
When there is a change in the volcano behaviour on the seismic side (emergence of tremors for example), we can approach things differently. In a previous trip to Mount Etna the degassing activity of the volcano seemed to be constant for ten days, while I’ve just done some field work on an eruptive open-conduit volcano called Stromboli, where the behaviour changed in a single day. I have been able to do some field trips on other open-vent and mafic magma volcanoes to draw comparisons and see if there are any similarities in their behaviour.
EUR: How can you combine narrowly focused, specialised research with the goal of understanding the bigger picture around volcano behaviour?
CB: I have spent a few months abroad in the project with other ESRs working on different
topics, including statistical data analysis and pattern recognition. I’m working with different people to try and model Mount Etna, and understand the behaviour we have observed.
Andrew Mitchell
EU Researcher: What is the focus of your research in Improve?
Andrew Mitchell: My interest is in the patterns and rates of ground deformation that we see around Mount Etna. In my project I’m looking at this from an analogue modelling perspective, focusing on nearsurface deformations.
EUR: Could you describe the set-up of these models?
AM: In one of the set-ups we’re using granular material such as sand and glass beads to represent a scaled down Mount Etna, while injecting viscous liquids into the model and measuring deformation changes. In another experiment we have a balloon underneath this sand cone - we inject water into this balloon, withdraw it, then repeat the process and observe the deformation on the cone.
I’m collaborating with other ESRs within IMPROVE who are working with computer models, while we also have GPS data on movements from Etna. So we have this exchange of information from multiple areas of research.
EUR: How do analogue models contribute to the overall goal of understanding volcanoes?
AM: Although Mount Etna does deform a lot over time, when the rate increases, it’s often seen as a sign of volcanic unrest. Therefore can we identify certain deformation patterns? If we can see these patterns in the analogue models and relate the results to Mount Etna, we may then have a better understanding of how the volcano deforms prior to an eruption.
EUR: Are you working towards a specific goal in the project, or are you focused mainly on improving the models?
AM: The ultimate goal is always to understand volcano behaviour and predict eruptions, but improving these models and understanding the underlying processes is an important step towards that.