anatomy of an unstable volcano from insar multiple processes affecting flank instability at mt etna 1994 2008 1 volcano deformation may occur under different conditions to understand how a volcano deforms as well as relations with magmatic activity we studied mt etna in detail using interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar data from 1994 to 2008 from 1994 to 2000 the volcano inflated with a linear behavior the inflation was accompanied by eastward and westward slip on the eastern and western flanks respectively the portions proximal to the summit showed higher inflation rates whereas the distal portions showed several sectors bounded by faults in some cases behaving as rigid blocks from 2000 to 2003 the deformation became nonlinear especially on the proximal eastern and western flanks showing marked eastward and westward displacements respectively this behavior resulted from the deformation induced by the emplacement of feeder dikes during the 2001 and 2002 2003 eruptions from 2003 to 2008 the deformation approached linearity again even though the overall pattern continued to be influenced by the emplacement of the dikes from 2001 to 2002 the eastward velocity on the eastern flank showed a marked asymmetry between the faster sectors to the north and those largely inactive to the south in addition from 1994 to 2008 part of the volcano base south west and north lower slopes experienced a consistent trend of uplift on the order of 0 5 cm yr this study reveals that the flanks of etna have undergone a complex instability resulting from three main processes in the long term 103 104 years the load of the volcano is responsible for the development of a peripheral bulge in the intermediate term 101 years observed from 1994 to 2000 inflation due to the accumulation of magma induces a moderate and linear uplift and outward slip of the flanks in the short term 1 year observed from 2001 to 2002 the emplacement of feeder dikes along the ne and south rifts results in a nonlinear focused and asymmetric deformation on the eastern and western flanks deformation due to flank instability is widespread at mt etna regardless of volcanic activity and remains by far the predominant type of deformation on the volcano

link between major flank slip and 2002 2003 eruption at mt etna italy 1 the 2002 2003 etna eruption is studied through earthquake distributions and surface fracturing in september 2002 earthquake induced surface rupture sinistral offset 0 48 m occurred along the e w striking pernicana fault pf on the ne flank in late october a flank eruption accompanied further 0 77 m surface rupturing reaching a total sinistral offset of 1 25 m the deformation then propagated for 18 km eastwards to the coastline sinistral offset 0 03 m and southwards along the nw se striking timpe dextral offset 0 04 m and later trecastagni faults dextral offset 0 035 m seismicity 4 km bsl on the e flank accompanied surface fracturing fault plane solutions indicate an overall ese wnw extension direction consistent with ese slip of the e flank also revealed by ground fractures a three stage model of flank slip is proposed inception september earthquake climax accelerated slip and eruption and propagation e and s migration of the deformation

age and impacts of the caldera forming aniakchak ii eruption in western alaska the mid holocene eruption of aniakchak volcano aniakchak ii in southwest alaska was among the largest eruptions globally in the last 10 000 years vei 6 despite evidence for possible impacts on global climate the precise age of the eruption is not well constrained and little is known about regional environmental impacts a closely spaced sequence of radiocarbon dates at a peatland site over 1000 km from the volcano show that peat accumulation was greatly reduced with a hiatus of approximately 90 120 yr following tephra deposition during this inferred hiatus no paleoenvironmental data are available but once vegetation returned the flora changed from a cyperaceae dominated assemblage to a poaceae dominated vegetation cover suggesting a drier and or more nutrient rich ecosystem oribatid mites are extremely abundant in the peat at the depth of the ash and show a longer term increasingly wet peat surface across the tephra layer the radiocarbon sample immediately below the tephra gave a date of 1636 1446 cal yr bc suggesting that the eruption might be younger than previously thought our findings suggest that the eruption may have led to a widespread reduction in peatland carbon sequestration and that the impacts on ecosystem functioning were profound and long lasting

subcontinental sinking slab remnants in a spherical geometry mantle model 1 comparisons of the paleogeographic record with seismic tomography sections from the mantle below asia indicate that detached slab remnants associated with a range of ages since subduction spanning roughly 100 myr appear to occupy mid mantle depths at different sites more than one explanation for the observed spectrum of ages at similar depths may be plausible to identify key parameters controlling the sinking rate of a slab we examine the effects of mantle viscosity rayleigh number and spherical geometry as well as the role of slab properties such as strike width depth extent at the time of slab detachment and slab rheology we model scenarios featuring detached mantle slabs in 3 d calculations and conclude that the initial depth extent of a subducted slab segment is a key parameter determining the rate at which the slab sinks we estimate that stiff slabs are able to occupy mid mantle depths for ages ranging from approximately 35 to 150 myr depending on the initial depth extent of the slab at the time of its detachment from the lithosphere this age range results from the time that different slab fragments require to cross the viscosity interface at the upper mantle lower mantle boundary in cases featuring mature slabs where the lower section of the slab has penetrated the lower mantle prior to detachment entrainment by the deep sinking segment helps the young upper mantle section of the slab cross into the lower mantle much more quickly than a slab segment initially confined to the upper mantle

effects of lateral variations in lithospheric thickness and mantle viscosity on glacially induced surface motion on a spherical self gravitating maxwell earth abstract the effects of lateral variations in lithospheric thickness and mantle viscosity on surface motions on a spherical self gravitating incompressible viscoelastic earth are investigated using the coupled laplace finite element method the ice 4g deglaciation model is used together with gravitationally self consistent sea levels in realistic oceans to describe the load lateral variations in mantle viscosities and lithospheric thickness are inferred from seismic tomography model s20a using well known scaling relationships the laterally homogeneous background viscosity has viscosity increases across 670 km and 1330 km depths and is a simplification of peltier s vm2 model the effect of interaction between ice complexes in north america greenland eurasia and antarctica are investigated and found to be significant for tangential motion the predicted motion in laurentide and antarctica are also compared with results obtained with flat earth models and found that there is general agreement between the two types of modeling although spherical earth models are more realistic because they take into account the interaction between ice complexes and there is no problem with edge effects the effects of lateral heterogeneity on uplift rate are found to be large enough to be resolved by current gps technology it confirms that the effect of the reverse viscosity contrast in the transition zone under the laurentian and fennoscandian craton may mask the effect of lateral heterogeneity in the neighboring layers on uplift rate for tangential motion lateral heterogeneity is found to be able to overprint the divergent motion from the centers of rebound predicted in laterally homogeneous models this finding is new for laurentide and is due to the contribution from the deep part of the lower mantle although the contribution from the upper mantle is also important on tangential motion its effects are compromised by the effects from the other layers

towards absolute plate motions constrained by lower mantle slab remnants the movement of tectonic plates before the cretaceous period is poorly understood a global mantle tomography model suggests that the longitude of oceanic subduction zones up to 300 million years ago was offset by up to 18 compared with tectonic reconstructions for the same period

seismological features of the pernicana provenzana fault system mt etna italy and implications for the dynamics of northeastern flank of the volcano abstract the pernicana provenzana fault system is one of the most active tectonic systems of mt etna and it plays an important role in the dynamic of the eastern flank of the volcano earthquakes occurring close to this structural trend have reached magnitudes up to 4 2 sometimes with coseismic surface faulting and have caused severe damages to tourist resorts and villages in the vicinity of this structure in the last decade a large number of shocks sometimes in the form of swarms linked to pernicana provenzana fault system movements have been detected by the permanent local seismic network operating in eastern sicily in this paper we report on the detailed study of the seismic activity occurring during the 2000 2009 time span in the pernicana provenzana fault system area firstly we located 407 earthquakes using a standard location code and a 1d crustal velocity model we then applied two different approaches to calculate precise hypocenter locations of the events in particular a non linear code was adopted to obtain an estimate of the a posteriori probability density function in 3d space for the hypocenter location moreover a relative location of correlated event pairs was performed using the double difference method these two different location approaches allowed defining with good accuracy the most active and hazarding sectors of the structure the results of these precise locations showed a tighter clustering in the epicenters and in focal depths in comparison with standard locations earthquakes are located along the pernicana provenzana fault system and are mainly clustered in two zones separated by an area with very low rate of earthquakes occurrence but characterized by the highest energy release depths of the foci are very shallow ranging between the surface and about 3 km b s l kinematics of the pernicana provenzana fault system revealed by the fault plane solutions computed for the most energetic earthquakes highlights a predominant dip slip and left strike movements along e w oriented fault planes in agreement with field observations

high and low resolution images of the earth s mantle implications of different approaches to tomographic modeling recently published images of the earth s mantle are characterized by a nominal resolution much higher than that used in previous studies where substantially different techniques were employed the agreement between such high resolution and low resolution images often seems very poor in an attempt to determine the reason for this discrepancy we analyze how the choice of inversion algorithm exact or iterative regularization norm or roughness minimization and parameterization spherical harmonics up to a variable degree blocks affects a tomographic model we also investigate the effects of the varying density of the data coverage on the final solution in our experiments we employ two seismic data sets rayleigh wave phase velocity at 75 s period and p wave travel times we construct a new model of p velocity in the mantle bdp98 based on the international seismological center bulletins 1964 1992 we use our findings in an evaluation of recent mantle models including our own focusing on similarities and discrepancies between models of different nominal resolution in all the models the long wavelength component is the most stable however consistent high resolution details probably corresponding to features of the real earth are also seen in general we conclude that most of the differences between existing tomographic models derive from the arbitrary choices made in the process of defining and solving the inverse problem rather than from actual errors or approximations

slabs in the lower mantle results of dynamic modelling compared with tomographic images and the geoid abstract the recent increase in resolution of tomographic images of the earth s interior has enabled us to see slabs in the lower mantle on the other hand the distribution of slabs can be inferred from subduction history using a dynamical model of mantle flow comparison of tomographic images with model results can help to distinguish between alternative models of subduction history tomographic models and mantle flow models and thus improve our understanding of the earth here a simple dynamic model of subduction is used and some results are presented amounts and locations of subduction are inferred from published models of plate motion and plate boundaries for the past 120 ma the latter have been interpolated on 2 ma time intervals mantle flow driven by the density anomalies corresponding to subducted slabs is calculated with the method of hager and o connell for a viscosity structure that features an increase in viscosity from 4 10 20 pa below the lithosphere to 4 10 22 pa in the lower part of the lower mantle slabs are advected in the flow field in the model slabs sink on average about 1700 km through the mantle during 100 ma however the calculated average horizontal motion of slabs throughout most of the mantle is only about 600 700 km for slabs that have sunk to the lowermost mantle it is about 1000 km this is in accordance with the previously observed good correlation between subduction locations and lowermost mantle heterogeneities slabs sink fastest in regions with abundant subduction and little trench migration e g below east asia in the lowermost mantle predicted slab locations tend to lie in areas with high seismic velocities however there are large areas of fast seismic velocities where no slabs are predicted and which therefore presumably correspond to earlier subduction in some regions e g below japan our model approximately reproduces the observed shape of the slab in other regions where the agreement is poor the results can help to further constrain models of subduction history and associated mantle flow additionally the predicted geoid is computed and compared with the actual geoid predicted and observed geoid have similar magnitude and a number of features in common however an optimization of the fit is not attempted here since in order to do this also the hot upwellings from the lower boundary layer presumably in the form of plumes would have to be included

4 d evolution of se asia s mantle from geological reconstructions and seismic tomography abstract how the collision between india and asia is related to processes deeper in the mantle is unclear here we compare geological reconstructions of block motions within asia since 50 ma with the tomographically imaged three dimensional 3 d morphology of subducted lithosphere to obtain insight into the spatiotemporal evolution of mantle structure past positions of the convergent margin show remarkable similarities with slab geometry at specific depths the striking change in slab geometry from a linear structure beneath 1100 km to an increasingly distorted shape at depths of less than 700 km results from collision the slab contours match the progressive deformation of asia s margin including india s indentation and sundaland s extrusion ever since the onset of collision the indian plate appears to have overridden its own sinking mantle and it does not seem at present to underthrust tibet significantly north of the zangbo suture if correct this observation would provide further evidence against models of plateau build up involving indian lithosphere the tomographic images beneath india confirm that asian deformation has absorbed at least 1500 km of convergence since collision began from the match between the southeastward motion of sundaland between 40 and 20 ma and the principal change in slab structure between 700 and 1100 km depths we infer that lateral advection in the mantle is small and that the sinking rate beneath sunda was 2 cm yr in the lower mantle and 5 cm yr above the transition zone

changes in heat released by hydrothermal circulation monitored during an eruptive cycle at mt etna italy the shallow vertical temperature profile has been measured in the proximity of an eruptive fissure far about 4 km north northeast from mt etna central craters the monitoring site was a steam heated soil lying between a group of flank fractures on the upper northeast flank of mt etna italy i e on the northeast rift we chose this area because it was close to an eruptive fissure that opened in 2002 and extended from about 2500 to about 1500 m a s l with our aim being to determine a connection between this fracture system and the ongoing volcanic activity heat flux anomalies from the ground from september 2009 to september 2012 were evaluated changes in the hydrothermal release which can be related to variations in volcanic activity are discussed and compared to the published geophysical data the heat flux ranges varied during the pre eruptive from about 7 to 38 w m 2 syn eruptive from about 3 to 49 w m 2 and post eruptive phases with the heat released being lowest at the latter phase from about 1 to 20 w m 2 moreover the heat flux time variation was strongly correlated with the eruption rate from the new southeast crater between january 2011 and april 2012 the migration of magma through active conduits acts as a changing heating source for steam heated soils located above the active fractures our findings suggest that tracking the heat flux above active fractures constitutes a useful investigation field for low cost thermal monitoring of volcanic activity time variations in their emissions could highlight the relationship between a hydrothermal circuit and the local network of fractures possibly indicating variation in the structural weakness of a volcanic edifice continuous monitoring of heat flux combined with a realistic model would contribute to multidisciplinary investigations aimed at evaluating changes in volcano dynamics

piggyback tectonics long term growth of kilauea on the south flank of mauna loa abstract compositional and age data from offshore pillow lavas and volcaniclastic sediments along with on land geologic seismic and deformation data provide broad perspectives on the early growth of kilauea volcano and the long term geometric evolution of its rift zones sulfur rich glass rinds on pillow lavas and volcaniclastic sediments derived from them document early underwater growth of a large compositionally diverse alkalic edifice the alkalic rocks yield 40ar 39ar ages as old as about 275 ka transitional composition lavas which mark beginning of the shield stage while most or all the edifice remained below sea level probably first erupted after about 150 ka and tholeiitic lavas of present day type are probably younger than 100 ka breccia clasts from papau seamount and along the lower southwest corner of the hilina bench are derived from subaerial mauna loa requiring that mauna loa s flank underlies western parts of kilauea at shallow depth the volume of the kilauea edifice is therefore smaller 10 000 km3 than previous estimates 15 40 000 km3 lava thickness accumulation rates appear to have remained nearly constant during edifice growth as effusion rates increased from 25 106 m3 yr at end of the alkalic stage to the present day tholeiite rate of 100 106 m3 yr seismic and gravity data show that the deep plumbing system for kilauea s magma supply extends nearly vertically through the oceanic crust at least to mantle depths of 30 35 km directly below its present day caldera proximity of kilauea s caldera to the surface boundary with mauna loa and the presence of mauna loa rocks at shallow depth beneath the south flank are difficult to reconcile with a submarine origin for early kilauea alkalic lavas unless geometric relations between the two volcanoes have changed substantially during growth of the kilauea shield seismic and ground deformation data suggest seaward spreading of the entire south flank of hawaii island independently of the boundary between kilauea and mauna loa along a landward dipping detachment fault system near the basal contact of the composite volcanic edifices with underlying oceanic crust current steady state horizontal displacements increase seaward at rates of 1 5 cm yr on the lower flank of mauna loa and reaching 5 8 cm yr at the kilauea coastline infrequent 100 yr large earthquakes generate similar geometries but 102 larger displacements per event present day kilauea is the more dynamic edifice but prior to inception of kilauea and during its early growth mauna loa is inferred to have undergone intense volcano spreading involving the kaoiki honuapo fault system considered a geometric analog of the hilina system on kilauea cumulative deformation of mauna loa s south flank during growth of kilauea since 200 300 ka is estimated to have involved 10 km of seaward spreading displacing the rift zones of k lauea while its deep plumbing system and summit magma reservoir remained nearly fixed in space kilauea s rift zones rather than migrating southward with time solely due to dike emplacement preferentially on the mobile seaward side alternatively are interpreted to have been transported passively southward piggyback style during shield stage growth of kilauea as a blister on the still mobile south flank of mauna loa such an evolution of kilauea accounts for the arcuate geometry of the present day rift zones proximity of the summit magma supply to the exposed flank of mauna loa initial submarine growth of the ancestral edifice and present day location of mauna loa rocks at shallow depth beneath the south flank of kilauea

simultaneous inversion for 3 d variations in shear and bulk velocity in the mantle until recently most of the seismic tomographic modeling has been addressing the question of lateral heterogeneity either in p or s wave velocities the s wave velocity variations are larger and hence provide stronger signal on long period waveforms the direct p travel times being the first arrivals on the other hand are most frequently reported in the international seismological centre isc bulletins in mineral physics experiments the variation in bulk velocity is more often measured to better understand the differences between vp and vp patterns and better link the results from mineral physics to those of seismic tomography we formulate the inverse problem in terms of relative perturbations in the shear velocity vs 12 and bulk sound velocity v k 12 we use a large data set which consists of waveforms waveform derived travel times and travel times from the isc bulletins the earthquakes are relocated using corrections for lateral heterogeneity the events which cannot be reliably determined are discarded the model is defined as spherical harmonics to degree 12 horizontally and as chebyshev polynomials to order 13 radially for both shear and bulk sound velocity the inversion is performed under smoothness constraint the resolution tests and bootstrapping analysis indicate that the model is well recovered particularly at long wavelength the results indicate a much larger variability of shear than bulk sound velocity the model explains observations well the most intriguing result obtained in this study is that the variations in shear velocity and bulk sound velocity are negatively correlated in the lowermost mantle the explanation is not very clear from the mineral physics point of view it is not unlikely that this could be explained in terms of thermal variation even though we are unwilling to rule out the possibility of large wavelength compositional variations

source model for the 2001 flank eruption of mt etna volcano 1 using interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar we constrain the deformation sources for the july august 2001 flank eruption of mt etna volcano italy insar data from ascending and descending passes of the ers2 satellite reveal a pattern of deformation that cannot be explained by a dike intrusion alone in addition to a vertical dike beneath the south rift zone the spatially large 10 km scale 15 20 cm in range negative range displacement lobes across the western descending data and eastern ascending data flanks require a nearly symmetric set of shallowly dipping normal faults to each side of the central dike complexity in the observed insar surface displacements constrains an additional dike intrusion beneath its ne flank long term deformation of etna s eastern and southern flanks is well established through field and insar observations therefore the relative symmetry of motion beneath both the western and eastern flanks during the 2001 eruption is surprising our model of symmetric flank motion suggests that on the short time scales of a large dike intrusion volcanoes can deform differently from their long term deformation

two stage subduction history under north america inferred from multiple frequency tomography eastward subduction of oceanic tectonic plates has shaped the geologic history of western north america over the past 150 million years the mountain building and volcanism that brought forth the spectacular landscapes of the west are credited to the vast ancient farallon plate which interacted mechanically and chemically with the overlying continent as it plunged back into the mantle here we use finite frequency travel time and amplitude measurements of teleseismic p waves in seven frequency bands to obtain a high resolution tomographic image to approx1 800 km depth we discover several large previously unknown pieces of the plate which show that two distinct stages of whole mantle subduction are present under north america the currently active one descends from the pacific northwest coast to 1 500 km depth beneath the great plains whereas its stalled predecessor occupies the transition zone and lower mantle beneath the eastern half of the continent we argue that the separation between them is linked to the laramide era 70 50 myr ago a time of unusual volcanism and mountain building far inland generally explained by an episode of extremely flat subduction

importance of gravitational spreading in the tectonic and volcanic evolution of mount etna the interaction between gravity and thermal effects largely determines the structural and magmatic evolution of volcanic constructs at scales spanning several orders of magnitude from small cones to the oceanic crust1 3 although gravitational spreading is a direct consequence of this interaction and a fundamental process in volcano growth it is rarely recognized as such here we describe a striking example of this process at etna volcano in italy the volcano and its clay rich substratum are slowly spreading towards the east and south driven by gravity spreading produces extensional structures in the summit region and contpressional structures at the base of the volcano eastward movement of the volcanic edifice over a stationary magma supply may be the cause of an apparent westward migration of volcanic activity as gravitational spreading seems to control the location and magnitude of shallow seismicity and flank eruptions an appreciation of its effects could become an essential element of future volcanic hazard evaluation our model proposed here for etna may also be relevant to a reinterpretation of the geological history of a number of other volcanoes

structural assessment of mount etna volcano from permanent scatterers analysis a study of the deformation pattern of mount etna volcano based on the results from the permanent scatterers ps technique is reported ground motion data provided by the interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar ps technique from 1995 to 2000 are compared and validated by gps data an analysis of the ascending and descending line of sight los components of ground velocities has yielded detailed ground deformation maps and cross sections this analysis allows detection and constraint of discontinuities in the surface velocity field los velocities have then been combined to calculate the vertical and horizontal e w ground velocities a wide inflation of the edifice has been detected on the western and northern flanks over an area of about 350 km2 a seaward motion of the eastern and southern flanks has also been measured ps data allows the geometry and kinematics of the several blocks composing the unstable flanks to be defined even in the highly urbanized areas and their displacement rates have been measured with millimeter precision this analysis reveals the extension of some features beyond their field evidences and defines new important features the results of this work depict a new comprehensive kinematic model of the volcano highlighting the gravitational reorganization of the unbuttressed volcanic pile on its slippery clay basement on the southern flank but an additional drag force due to a strong subsidence of the continental margin facing the etna volcano is necessary to explain the ps velocity field observed on the eastern flank

active tectonic features and structural dynamics of the summit area of mt etna italy revealed by soil co2 and soil temperature surveying project cgl2005 07509 cli ministry of education and science of spain dpc ingv project flank istituto nazionale di geofisica e vulcanologia osservatorio etneo sezione di catania

segmentation of the farallon slab abstract recent tomography images reveal a complex 3d mantle structure beneath western united states with feature morphology varying rapidly with depth by assimilating plate motion history paleo age of sea floor and paleo geography of plate boundaries in a 3 d numerical model we simulate the farallon juan de fuca subduction during the past 40 ma we find that the highly segmented upper mantle structure of western u s is a direct result of the farallon subduction we show that the tilted horseshoe shaped fast seismic anomaly beneath nevada and utah at 300 600 km depth range is in fact a segment of curled slab subducted since 15 ma and the shallower linear slab beneath the cascades is younger than 5 ma the distinct morphology between these two parts of the subduction system indicates the strong influence of the fast trench rollback since 20 ma the northward migrating jf pa na triple junction and the toroidal flow around slab edges the observed mantle structures are used to constrain the rheology of the upper mantle through matching the shape depth and location of modeled subducted slab segments the inferred viscosity for the asthenosphere is 5 10 19 pa s and those for the transition zone and lower mantle are 1 5 10 21 pa s and 2 10 22 pa s respectively the slab is found to be about 2 orders of magnitude stronger than the ambient mantle above 410 km depth but of similar order of magnitude viscosity in the transition zone

rift zone reorganization through flank instability in ocean island volcanoes an example from tenerife canary islands the relationship between rift zones and flank instability in ocean island volcanoes is often inferred but rarely documented our field data aerial image analysis and 40ar 39ar chronology from anaga basaltic shield volcano on tenerife canary islands support a rift zone flank instability relationship a single rift zone dominated the early stage of the anaga edifice 6 4 5 ma destabilization of the northern sector led to partial seaward collapse at about 4 5 ma resulting in a giant landslide the remnant highly fractured northern flank is part of the destabilized sector a curved rift zone developed within and around this unstable sector between 4 5 and 3 5 ma induced by the dilatation of the curved rift a further rift arm developed to the south generating a three armed rift system this evolutionary sequence is supported by elastic dislocation models that illustrate how a curved rift zone accelerates flank instability on one side of a rift and facilitates dike intrusions on the opposite side our study demonstrates a feedback relationship between flank instability and intrusive development a scenario probably common in ocean island volcanoes we therefore propose that ocean island rift zones represent geologically unsteady structures that migrate and reorganize in response to volcano flank instability

geoframework coupling multiple models of mantle convection within a computational framework solver coupling can extend the capability of existing modeling software and provide a new venue to address previously intractable problems a software package has been developed to couple geophysical solvers demonstrating a method to accurately and efficiently solve multiscale geophysical problems with reengineered software using a computational framework pyre pyre is a modeling framework capable of handling all aspects of the specification and launching of numerical investigations we restructured and ported citcoms a finite element code for mantle convection into the pyre framework two citcoms solvers are coupled to investigate the interaction of a plume at high resolution with global mantle flow at low resolution a comparison of the coupled models with parameterized models demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of the coupled models and illustrates the limitations and utility of parameterized models

sinking slabs below fossil subduction zones abstract the fate of sinking lithospheric slabs following the cessation of subduction is examined using a two dimensional numerical model of mantle convection the model incorporates rigidly moving oceanic plates which recycle through the underlying viscous mantle and rigid continental plates which cannot be subducted due to their inherent buoyancy the model is used to study the effects of the cessation of subduction due to the accretion of a 4000 km wide block of continental crust to the margin of a large stationary continent e g the india asia collision we model a continental block representative of greater india that is carried along with an oceanic plate towards a subduction zone at the leading edge of a much larger stationary continent which represents asia prior to continental collision subducted oceanic plate material under rides the margin of the larger continent for several hundred kilometres before peeling away from the surface boundary layer and descending into the mantle as a cold narrow slab consequently once a moving continental block arrives at the continental margin and closes over the original subduction zone the surface location of the continental suture lies several hundred kilometres seaward of the location of the cold remnant of the sinking slab the ongoing convective flow in the subcontinental mantle adjusts to accommodate the change in mechanical boundary condition at the upper surface a step increase in viscosity at 660 km depth slows the rate of slab descent substantially but cannot account for mid mantle thermal anomalies attributed to subduction zones that became extinct more than 140 my ago the horizontal displacement of the slab remnants relative to the continental crustal suture depends on the relative motion of the fossil plate boundary at the surface and the underlying mantle over riding of an intra oceanic subduction zone or the indenting of a smaller subcontinent into a larger continental mass can cause the tomographically observed cold anomalies to be displaced laterally by thousands of kilometers from the location of the former converging plate boundary

subduction history of the tethyan region derived from seismic tomography and tectonic reconstructions 1 in the mantle underneath the tethyan suture zone large volumes of positive velocity anomalies have been imaged by seismic tomography and interpreted as the present day signature of subducted tethyan lithosphere we investigate the mesozoic cenozoic subduction history of the region by integrating independent information from mantle tomography and tectonic reconstructions three different subduction scenarios for the tethyan oceanic lithosphere representative for the available tectonic reconstructions are used to predict the present thermally anomalous volumes associated with the lithospheric surface subducted since the late mesozoic next these predicted thermal volumes and their expected positions are compared to the relevant anomalous volumes derived from seismic tomographic images in this analysis we include among others the possible effects of ridge subduction and slab detachment after the cenozoic continental collisions absolute plate motion and slab thickening in the mantle our preferred subduction model comprises the opening of large back arc oceanic basins within the eurasian margin the model points to slab thickening by a factor of 3 in the mantle in which case the estimated volumes allow for active oceanic spreading 1 2 5 cm yr in the tethyan lithosphere during convergence our results further indicate the occurrence of early oligocene slab detachment underneath the northern zagros suture zone followed by both westward and eastward propagation of the slab tear and diachronous eocene to miocene slab detachment below the eastern to western himalayas free sinking rates of the detached material of 2 cm yr in the lower mantle provide the best fit between the tomographic mantle structure and our tethyan subduction model

laboratory experiments on the structure of subducted lithosphere abstract mantle seismic tomography images indicate a variety of shapes for slabs of oceanic lithosphere subducted into the transition zone in the vicinity of the 660 km discontinuity both horizontally deflected slabs and nearly vertical slabs have been inferred at subduction zones on the pacific and indian plates here we determine experimentally the behavior of a cold negatively buoyant and highly viscous slab incident on a fluid interface with a viscosity and a density increase the experiments are scaled to mantle conditions with realistic subduction peclet number ratio of trench migration to subduction velocities and physical properties of the interface a wide range of slab deformation styles is observed when slight changes in the parameters are imposed sinking slab stagnant slab spreading slab sinking pile and stagnant pile represent the five different modes identified we show that these deformation modes are governed by two velocity ratios which characterize the horizontal and the vertical components of the slab velocity near the interface slab penetration into the lower layer takes the form of folded slab piles for large values of the velocity ratios and stagnant behavior is promoted by rapid retrograde trench motion the sensitivity of slab behavior to transition zone density and viscosity changes and to trench migration can account for the coexistence of different modes of deformation in subducted lithosphere

intra panthalassa ocean subduction zones revealed by fossil arcs and mantle structure the vast panthalassa ocean once surrounded the supercontinent pangaea subduction has since consumed most of the oceanic plates that formed the ocean floor so classic plate reconstructions based on magnetic anomalies can be used only to constrain the ocean s history since the cretaceous period 1 2 and the triassic jurassic plate tectonic evolution of the panthalassa ocean remains largely unresolved 3 4 geological clues come from extinct intra oceanic volcanic arcs that formed above ancient subduction zones but have since been accreted to the north american and asian continental margins 4 here we compile data on the composition the timing of formation and accretion and the present day locations of these volcanic arcs and show that intra oceanic subduction zones must have once been situated in a central panthalassa location in our plate tectonic reconstructions 5 7 to constrain the palaeoposition of the extinct arcs we correlate them with remnants of subducted slabs that have been identified in the mantle using seismic wave tomographic models 8 9 we suggest that a series of subduction zones together called telkhinia may have defined two separate palaeo oceanic plate systems the pontus and thalassa oceans our reconstruction provides constraints on the palaeolongitude and tectonic evolution of the telkhinia subduction zones and panthalassa ocean that are crucial for global plate tectonic reconstructions and models of mantle dynamics the spatial uncertainty in reconstructions of oceanic basins increases the further we go back in time because oceanic plates subduct plate reconstructions for the triassicjurassic history of the panthalassa ocean once surrounding the pangaea supercontinent are based on the premise that the pacific plate formedinthemiddlejurassicasatriangle 2 originatingfromatriple junction between the farallon phoenix and izanagi plates fig 1 the preserved area of jurassic palaeoplates represents only a small portion 10 of the oceanic crust of the jurassic panthalassa ocean the remaining part along with pre jurassic oceanic plate configurations is entirely unconstrained however the geology of the circum panthalassa continental margins provides evidence that early mesozoic subduction related volcanism occurred in the panthalassa ocean 4 10 on subduction continental fragments volcanic arcs ophiolites and ocean floor sediments collided with or accreted to the continental margins of in particular western north america far east asia and japan marine microfossils in these sediments and palaeomagnetic data constrain their age and palaeolatitude but their palaeolongitudes remain undetermined palaeogeographic reconstructions therefore show uncorrelated intra panthalassa exotic terranes essentially

flank instability structure of mt etna inferred by a magnetotelluric survey this paper presents a magnetotelluric mt survey of the unstable eastern flank of mt etna we take thirty soundings along two profiles oriented in the n s and nw se directions and from these data recover two 2d resistivity models of the subsurface both models reveal three major layers in a resistive conductive resistive sequence the deepest extending to 14 km bsl the shallow layer corresponds to the volcanic cover and the intermediate conductive layer corresponds to underlying sediments segmented by faults these two electrical units are cut by e w striking faults the third layer basement is interpreted as mainly pertinent to the apennine maghrebian chain associated with sw ne striking regional faults the detailed shapes of the resistivity profiles clearly show that the ne rift is shallow rooted 0 1 km bsl thus presumably fed by lateral dikes from the central volcano conduit the nw se profile suggests by a series of listric faults reaching up to 3 km bsl then becoming almost horizontal toward the se the resistive basement dramatically dips from 3 km to 10 km bsl in correspondence with the timpe fault system several high conductivity zones close to the main faults suggest the presence of hydrothermal activity and fluid circulation that could enhance flank instability our results provide new findings about the geometry of the unstable etna flank and its relation to faults and subsurface structures

magma storage and migration associated with the 2011 2012 el hierro eruption implications for crustal magmatic systems at oceanic island volcanoes 1 starting in july 2011 anomalous seismicity was observed at el hierro island a young oceanic island volcano on 12 october 2011 the process led to the beginning of a submarine nw se fissural eruption at 15 km from the initial earthquake loci indicative of significant lateral magma migration here we conduct a multifrequency multisensor interferometric analysis of spaceborne radar images acquired using three different satellite systems radarsat 2 envisat and cosmo skymed constellation of small satellites for mediterranean basin observation the data fully captures both the pre eruptive and coeruptive phases elastic modeling of the ground deformation is employed to constrain the dynamics associated with the magmatic activity this study represents the first geodetically constrained active magmatic plumbing system model for any of the canary islands volcanoes and one of the few examples of submarine volcanic activity to date geodetic results reveal two spatially distinct shallow crustal magma reservoirs a deeper central source 9 5 4 0 km and a shallower magma reservoir at the flank of the southern rift 4 5 2 0 km the deeper source was recharged explaining the relatively long basaltic eruption contributing to the observed island wide uplift processes and validating proposed active magma underplating the shallowest source may be an incipient reservoir that facilitates fractional crystallization as observed at other canary islands data from this eruption supports a relationship between the depth of the shallow crustal magmatic systems and the long term magma supply rate and oceanic lithospheric age such a relationship implies that a factor controlling the existence depth of shallow crustal magmatic systems in oceanic island volcanoes is the lithosphere thermomechanical behavior

active spreading and regional extension at mount etna imaged by sar interferometry abstract large flank instability has been proposed by most recent authors as a major process in the dynamics of mount etna however several aspects of the models are still disputed such as the boundaries of the moving area and the driving force for the instability in this paper we present synthetic aperture radar interferometric data which allow us to identify two main sectors of active instability where the deformational process differs an eastern sector is bounded to the north by the pernicana provenzana fault to the west by the north rift zone and the south rift zone and to the south by the mascalucia tremestieri trecastagni fault system interferograms provide new data on the activity and extent of the southern boundary which was previously underestimated in this sector the structural features indicate an eastward sliding driven by e w regional extension which can be interpreted as a result of the retreating slab of the ionian subduction a second collapsing sector exists along the southern flank of mount etna where the interferograms show the presence of an active anticlinal ridge this ridge is interpreted as the result of southward gravity spreading over a basal decollement between etna and its plio quaternary basement and the hyblean platform the two sectors first became active in summer 1996 after the beginning of a new cycle of eruptive activity at the summit the activity was ongoing until january 1998 with the deformation rate ranging from 4 6 mm yr for the mascalucia tremestieri trecastagni faults to 12 mm yr for the anticlinal ridge

evidence of midmantle anisotropy from shear wave splitting and the influence of shear coupled p waves 1 until recently the midmantle region of the earth the transition zone and the uppermost lower mantle has been considered isotropic recent work by wookey et al 2002 presented evidence of anisotropy in the midmantle region near the tonga kermadec subduction zone inferred from shear wave splitting in teleseismic s phases at australian seismic stations this data set is revisited to examine the possibility of contamination by shear coupled p waves using reflectivity modeling we explore the effects of these phases on the measurement of shear wave splitting contamination of such measurements is demonstrated for short epicentral distances 30 wave field decomposition is a simple technique which can be used to separate these phases from the main s wave arrival the tonga australia data set is reprocessed after wave field decomposition shear wave splitting ranging between 0 7 and 6 2 s is observed a range comparable to that observed by wookey et al 2002 as before the polarization of the fast shear wave is observed to be predominantly horizontal however the magnitudes of splitting for several events at short epicentral distances are significantly reduced suggesting some influence of shear coupled p waves in the original analysis the results are compared with possible models of mantle anisotropy and the results can be best explained by significant anisotropy in the midmantle region the best candidate location for this anisotropy is in the uppermost lower mantle and scenarios involving the alignment of lower mantle or subducted materials by regional dynamic processes are suggested to account for this

closing the gap between regional and global travel time tomography recent global travel time tomography studies by zhou 1996 and van der hilst et al 1997 have been performed with cell parameterizations of the order of those frequently used in regional tomography studies i e with cell sizes of 1 2 these new global models constitute a considerable improvement over previous results that were obtained with rather coarse parameterizations 5 cells the inferred structures are however of larger scale than is usually obtained in regional models and it is not clear where and if individual cells are actually resolved this study aims at resolving lateral heterogeneity on scales as small as 0 6 in the upper mantle and 1 2 3 in the lower mantle this allows for the adequate mapping of expected small scale structures induced by for example lithosphere subduction deep mantle upwellings and mid ocean ridges there are three major contributions that allow for this advancement first we employ an irregular grid of nonoverlapping cells adapted to the heterogeneous sampling of the earth s mantle by seismic waves spakman and bijwaard 1998 second we exploit the global data set of engdahl et al 1998 which is a reprocessed version of the global data set of the international seismological centre their reprocessing included hypocenter redetermination and phase reidentification finally we combine all data used p pp and pwp phases into nearly 5 million ray bundles with a limited spatial extent such that averaging over large mantle volumes is prevented while the signal to noise ratio is improved in the approximate solution of the huge inverse problem we obtain a variance reduction of 57 1 synthetic sensitivity tests indicate horizontal resolution on the scale of the smallest cells 0 6 or 1 2 in the shallow parts of subduction zones decreasing to approximately 2 3 resolution in well sampled regions in the lower mantle vertical resolution can be worse up to several hundreds of kilometers in subduction zones with rays predominantly pointing along dip important features of the solution are as follows 100 200 km thick high velocity slabs beneath all major subduction zones sometimes flattening in the transition zone and sometimes directly penetrating into the lower mantle large high velocity anomalies in the lower mantle that have been attributed to subduction of the tethys ocean and the farallon plate and low velocity anomalies continuing across the 660 km discontinuity to hotspots at the surface under iceland east africa the canary islands yellowstone and the society islands our findings corroborate that the 660 km boundary may resist but not prevent present day large scale mass transfer from upper to lower mantle or vice versa this observation confirms the results of previous global mantle studies that employed coarser parameterizations

intrusive mechanism of the 2002 ne rift eruption at mt etna italy inferred through continuous microgravity data and volcanological evidences 1 in october 2002 a new eruption began at etna lava flows were issued from two different fissure systems on the ne and s flanks of the volcano a continuous microgravity sequence acquired at a station on the n slope 2800 m a s l shows a marked decrease about 400 gal in less than one hour about 4 hours before lava was first emitted from the eruptive fissures along the ne rift this anomaly reversed soon afterward at a high rate the strong gravity decrease is interpreted as the opening by external forces of a shallow fracture system 1 km w of the gravity station magma from the central conduit entered the new fracture system passively and propagated through it towards lower portions of the ne rift both the arrangement of the new fracture system and the eruptive dynamics are in keeping with the inferred intrusive mechanism

seismo tectonic behavior of the pernicana fault system mt etna a gauge for volcano flank instability 1 flank instability at basaltic volcanoes is often related to repeated dike intrusions along rift zones and accompanied by surface fracturing and seismicity these processes have been mostly studied during specific events and the lack of longer term observations hinders their better understanding here we analyze 20 years of deformation of the pernicana fault system pfs the key structure controlling the instability of the eastern flank of mt etna we exploit east west and vertical components of mean deformation velocity as well as corresponding time series computed from ers envisat 1992 2010 and cosmo skymed 2009 2011 satellite radar sensors via synthetic aperture radar interferometry techniques we then integrate and compare this information with field seismic and leveling data collected between 1980 and 2012 we observe transient displacements accompanied by seismicity overprinted on a long term background eastward motion 2 cm yr in the last decades these transient events were preceded by a constant amount of accumulated strain near the pfs the time of strain accumulation varies between a few years and a few decades also depending on magma emplacement within the nearby north east rift which may increase the strain along the pfs these results suggest that the amount of deformation near the pfs may be used as a gauge to forecast the occurrence of instability transients on the eastern flank of etna in this context the pfs may provide an ideal small scale structure to test the relations between strain accumulation stress loading and seismic energy release

tethyan subducted slabs under india abstract tomographic imaging of the mantle under tibet india and the adjacent indian ocean reveals several zones of relatively high p wave velocities at various depths under the hindu kush region in northeastern afghanistan and southern tajikistan a regional northward dipping slab is seen in the entire upper 600 km of the mantle and is apparently still attached to the lithosphere of the indian plate under northern pakistan this same slab shows a roll over structure with the deeper portion overturned and dipping southward as can also be seen in the distribution of earthquake hypocenters farther east southeast e g in the vicinity of nepal a well resolved anomaly below 450 km depth is connected to the slab under the hindu kush but seems to be separated from the lithosphere above 350 km these upper mantle anomalies are interpreted as the remnants of delaminated sub continental lithosphere that went down when greater india continued to converge northward with asia after 45 ma the deeper high velocity anomalies under the indian sub continent appear clearly separated from the shallower ones as well as from each other and are inferred to represent remnants of oceanic lithospheric slabs that have sunk into the lower mantle and were subsequently overridden by the indian plate they occur at depths between 1000 and 2300 km and occasionally descend down to the core mantle boundary the anomalies form three parallel wnw ese striking zones we interpret the two southern zones as remnants of oceanic lithosphere that was subducted when the neo tethys ocean closed between india and tibet in the cretaceous and earliest tertiary the northern deep mantle zone under northern afghanistan the himalayas and the lhasa block in southern tibet may represent the last subducted remnant of the paleo tethys ocean which is thought to have closed before the hauterivian stage of the early cretaceous the middle zone continues southeastward as a rather straight high velocity zone towards sumatra where it becomes convex southward and parallel to the subduction zone under the sunda arc comparison of this straight middle zone near india with the shallower upper 600 1000 km northern zone which displays a cusp like shape near the yunnan sw china syntaxis of the eastern himalayas supports the notion that the shallow northern zone represents later subduction than the deeper middle zone the suggestion of a counterclockwise rotation 20 of the indian plate during tertiary indentation of asia is supported by these features the present day latitudes of 5 35 n of the deep slabs under india and adjacent areas correspond to the approximate paleolatitudes of the cretaceous subduction zones the slab remnants in the middle mantle occur therefore near the ancient locations where they started their downward journey which implies that lateral movements in the deeper mantle were not large

the role of the pernicana fault system in the spreading of mt etna italy during the 2002 2003 eruption flank instability and collapse are observed at many volcanoes among these mt etna is characterized by the spreading of its eastern and southern flanks the eastern spreading area is bordered to the north by the e w trending pernicana fault system pfs during the 2002 2003 etna eruption ground fracturing along the pfs migrated eastward from the ne rift to as far as the 18 km distant coastline the deformation consisted of dextral en echelon segments with sinistral and normal kinematics both of these components of displacement were one order of magnitude larger 1 m in the western previously known portion of the pfs with respect to the newly surveyed 9 km long eastern section 0 1 m this eastern section is located along a pre existing but previously unknown fault where displaced man made structures give overall slip rates 1 1 9 cm year only slightly lower than those calculated for the western portion 1 4 2 3 cm year after an initial rapid motion during the first days of the 2002 2003 eruption movement of the western portion of the pfs decreased dramatically while parts of the eastern portion continued to move these data suggest a model of spreading of the eastern flank of etna along the pfs characterized by eruptions along the ne rift instantaneous short lived meter scale displacements along the western pfs and more long lived centimeter scale displacements along the eastern pfs the surface deformation then migrated southwards reactivating one after the other the nnw sse trending timpe and trecastagni faults with displacements of 0 1 and 0 04 m respectively these structures along with the pfs mark the boundaries of two adjacent blocks moving at different times and rates the new extent of the pfs and previous activity over its full length indicate that the sliding eastern flank extends well below the ionian sea the clustering of seismic activity above 4 km b s l during the eruption suggests a deep decollement for the moving mass the collected data thus suggests a significant movement volume 1 100 km3 of the eastern flank of etna both on shore and off shore

remote sensing of volcanoes and volcanic processes integrating observation and modelling introduction volcanoes are often remote and have footprints that may extend across many hundreds or thousands of square kilometres they are generally inaccessible during eruption and may continue to be inaccessible for extended periods of time after eruption while their products can be scattered or dispersed over regional or global scales consequently since direct measurement can only provide us with part of the picture of many volcanic processes remote sensing is now playing an increasingly important role in advancing understanding of the science underlying volcanic behaviour on this planet and beyond e g mouginis mark et al 2000 sparks et al 2012 satellite airborne and ground based remote sensing are increasingly vital tools for monitoring active or potentially active volcanoes and assessing their likely real time or time averaged impact fig 1 at the same time the synoptic scale surveys that are often well suited to remote sensing techniques allow us to address questions about the fundamental processes that control volcano behaviour in a way that is not necessarily possible from individual case studies new research is often driven by technological advancements in the development of novel sensors or launching of new platforms meaning that the space agencies are increasingly involved in identifying scientific questions and priorities e g ferruci et al 2012 multiple and complementary data streams are increasingly being used both to monitor active volcanoes and advance volcanological science the key geophysical parameters that comprise monitoring data streams typically include the categories of i seismicity ii surface deformation iii thermal measurements and iv gas flux and composition data as major components while measurements of seismicity remain the domain of ground based seismometers remote sensing techniques have made major contributions in each of the others this special publication volume is concerned with the use of remote sensing at volcanoes it is split into three parts roughly arranged from the subsurface to the surface and then further afield as volcanic products are injected and dispersed into the atmosphere the papers span a range of applications of remote sensing techniques to monitor and understand a surface deformation b surface thermal anomalies and c gas fluxes as well as tracking ash and gas plumes from eruptions to gain insights into the extent of a volcano s impacts volcanology is driven in part by the operational concerns surrounding volcano monitoring and hazard and crisis management but the goal of volcanological science is at its heart to understand the processes that underlie volcanic activity this special publication is also concerned with how we go from observations to this deeper understanding including the progress that can be made by integrating observations and modelling while this volume focuses mainly on satellite based remote sensing integrating datasets from different platforms is also of vital importance and so papers on airborne remote sensing and measurement from both manned and unmanned aircraft are also included

review of ten years of volcano deformations recorded by the ground based insar monitoring system at stromboli volcano a tool to mitigate volcano flank dynamics and intense volcanic activity abstract stromboli volcano southern italy is one of the most monitored volcano in the world with a surveillance network that includes a permanently sited ground based sar interferometer gbinsar this work is the review of the gbinsar data gained from the last decade of monitoring activity the analysis of the entire dataset of gbinsar measurements allowed the assessment of the deformation field of the northern part of the summit crater area and the sciara del fuoco depression in detail the main displacements recognized can be related to different factors 1 the inflation deflation respectively immediately before and after each new effusive event 2 the bulging of localized sectors of the volcano involved in the vent opening 3 the gravitational sliding of the sciara del fuoco infill 4 the movement of lava flows accelerations in this sector are related to sheet intrusions while the possibility of vent opening associated with small sliding or catastrophic flank failure are related to highly overpressurized sheets able to produce high displacement rate in the sciara del fuoco in the summit crater area the increases in the displacement rate are related to the pressurization of the shallow conduit system as the consequence of the variation in the magma level magmastatic pressure or to the lateral magma migration lateral conduit expansion or dike intrusion in response to the increase of the overpressure component fluctuations in the displacement rate in the summit crater area can be related to the magma overturning within the conduit with the increases in displacement rate during the upwelling of less dense magma while displacement rate decreases as the degassed magma column is pushed out from the conduit lava flows or overflows instead the decrease in the displacement rate without coeval lava outpouring could be related to the sink of the degassed magma due to density contrast between the gas poor and the gas charged magmas using the displacement rate in the summit crater area as a proxy for the variation in the pressure condition in conduit both magmastatic and overpressure components thresholds for the crises characterized by the occurrence of overflows eventually associated with major explosions and flank effusions eventually associated with paroxysmal explosions are identified small conduit overpressure will produce overflows sometimes associated with crater rim collapses while large magma overpressure will laterally expand the conduit forming ne sw striking sheets feeding eruptive vents at the base of the summit crater area and within the sciara del fuoco generating conditions of instability that can evolve into catastrophic collapse of the instable flank

mapping the lower mantle determination of lateral heterogeneity in p velocity up to degree and order 6 the data from the international seismological centre bulletins for the years 1964 1979 are used to derive a three dimensional model of lateral variations of the p velocity in the lower mantle unlike previous studies in which such perturbations were represented by a blocklike parameterization we seek the solution in the form r k 0k l 0l m 0l k r kalm cos m kblm sin m plm cos some 500 000 travel time residuals for teleseismic distances from 5000 earthquakes are used in an iterative procedure to derive the coefficients a and b the maximum k and l used are 4 and 6 respectively in each iteration in addition to solving for the three dimensional structure we also relocate all the earthquakes perturb the average travel time curve and determine station corrections for over 1000 stations particular attention is given to the problem of weighting the individual observations in order to avoid as much as possible the bias due to the uneven distribution of sources and receivers the resulting model shows a high level of perturbations just below the 670 km discontinuity and just above the core mantle boundary where the maximum perturbations reach 1 1 5 of the average velocity even for this highly smoothed model at a depth of 2000 km the rms perturbations are some 3 to 4 times lower than at either of the two boundaries the model predicts well the large scale pattern of observed travel time residuals for various source regions except for the distinct effects of the subduction zones the most striking large scale three dimensional feature of the model is a ring of high velocities circumscribing the pacific basin within a depth range from 1000 km to the core mantle boundary if the proportionality between perturbations in the velocity and temperature is assumed the derived pattern of anomalies could be consistent with a two boundary layer model of convection in the lower mantle some caution however should be exercised in interpreting the results near the 670 km discontinuity where the resolving power of our data set is limited by the lack of adequate control of the upper mantle structure at the same time a significant global increase in the level of perturbations in the lowermost mantle is established beyond question the results of dziewonski et al 1977 on the correlation between the equivalent geoid and the observed geoid for the angular order numbers 2 and 3 is confirmed but there is no significant correlation for degrees from 4 to 6 these calculations are made for the rigid earth richards and hager this issue show that introduction of finite viscosity can change the sign of a geoid anomaly in addition recent studies of lateral variations in the shear velocity reveal the presence of large scale anomalies in the upper mantle thus while the inferences made here with respect to the origin of the gravest orders of the geopotential field are not conclusive they point the way in which results from seismology can be used to address some of the basic questions of geodynamics

how do volcanic rift zones relate to flank instability evidence from collapsing rifts at etna 1 volcanic rift zones characterized by repeated dike emplacements are expected to delimit the upper portion of unstable flanks at basaltic edifices we use nearly two decades of insar observations excluding wintertime acquisitions to analyze the relationships between rift zones dike emplacement and flank instability at etna the results highlight a general eastward shift of the volcano summit including the northeast and south rifts this steady state eastward movement 1 2 cm yr is interrupted or even reversed during transient dike injections detailed analysis of the northeast rift shows that only during phases of dike injection as in 2002 does the rift transiently becomes the upper border of the unstable flank the flank s steady state eastward movement is inferred to result from the interplay between magmatic activity asymmetric topographic unbuttressing and east dipping detachment geometry at its base this study documents the first evidence of steady state volcano rift instability interrupted by transient dike injection at basaltic edifices

seismic coupling and uncoupling at subduction zones seismic coupling has been used as a qualitative measure of the interaction between the two plates at subduction zones kanamori 1971 introduced seismic coupling after noting that the characteristic size of earthquakes varies systematically for the northern pacific subduction zones a quantitative global comparison of many subduction zones reveals a strong correlation of earthquake size with two other variables age of the subducting lithosphere and convergence rate the largest earthquakes occur in zones with young lithosphere and fast convergence rates while zones with old lithosphere and slow rates are relatively aseismic for large earthquakes results from a study of the rupture process of three great earthquakes indicate that maximum earthquake size is directly related to the asperity distribution on the fault plane asperities are strong regions that resist the motion between the two plates the zones with the largest earthquakes have very large asperities while the zones with smaller earthquakes have small scattered asperities this observation can be translated into a simple model of seismic coupling where the horizontal compressive stress between the two plates is proportional to the ratio of the summed asperity area to the total area of the contact surface while the variation in asperity size is used to establish a connection between earthquake size and tectonic stress it also implies that plate age and rate affect the asperity distribution plate age and rate can control asperity distribution directly by use of the horizontal compressive stress associated with the preferred trajectory i e the vertical and horizontal velocities of subducting slabs are determined by the plate age and convergence velocity indirect influences are many including oceanic plate topography and the amount of subducted sediments all subduction zones are apparently uncoupled below a depth of about 40 km and we propose that the basalt to eclogite phase change in the down going oceanic crust may be largely responsible this phase change should start at a depth of 30 35 km and could at least partially uncouple the plates by superplastic deformation throughout the oceanic crust during the phase change

control of rock rheology on deformation style and slip rate along the active pernicana fault mt etna italy abstract the already known part of the active left lateral strike slip pernicana fault on the eastern flank of mt etna volcano has a holocene high slip rate of 1 5 2 7 cm yr but its surface trace abruptly disappears eastward approaching the lower slope of the volcano using geological geomorphological and structural surveys we found that the pernicana deformation zone extends 8 km further to the east beyond this point through a different mechanism as the thickness of the volcanic pile decreases the single e w to ese striking main fault plane gives way to a set of faults arranged in a splay structure which partitions the fault motion here slip rates are 0 4 to 1 4 cm yr on each fault further east where the lava succession is very thin and unfaulted we suggest that lavas are decoupled from plastic deforming sub etnean clay deposits which absorb the strain or that lavas have a too low mass to slide on the very lowest slope of the volcano i e further east lavas are once again thicker and the pernicana deformation zone behaves at the surface once again in a brittle manner locally known as the fiumefreddo fault with a low slip rate of

what happens to in soil radon activity during a long lasting eruption insights from etna by multidisciplinary data analysis we analyze short to long term changes from days to months in radon rn activity measured nearby 2 km the eruptive fractures that fed a lava effusion at mt etna italy between 13 may 2008 and 6 july 2009 the n120 140 e eruptive fractures opened between 3050 and 2620 m above sea level before a dike forming intrusion fed the 14 month long lava emission our high rate data streams include rn ambient parameters barometric pressure and soil temperature and seismic data earthquakes and volcanic tremor recorded from january 2008 to july 2009 the analysis highlights repeated episodes of rock fracturing related to seismic swarms and vigorous gas pulses and peak values in rn emissions maximum 4 1x105 bq m3 on 16 november 2008 which we interpreted in a conceptual model as the response to inputs from the magmatic system during the eruption this multidisciplinary study i provides evidence of a close relationship between rn emission at a fumarole near the summit active craters and local earthquakes and ii enables exploring the important role of the volcanic source on the temporal development of the rn flux which may account for the much higher 94 m day ascent speed of the rn carrier vapor than diffusion the close location of rn probes to the active conduits along with the application of our multidisciplinary approach may shed new light on the internal dynamics of other active volcanoes worldwide

detachment depth revealed by rollover deformation an integrated approach at mount etna this work was partially funded by ingv and the dpc ingv project flank and partially by the asi srv project

evidence of lower mantle slab penetration phases in plate motions it is well accepted that subduction of the cold lithosphere is a crucial component of the earth s plate tectonic style of mantle convection but whether and how subducting plates penetrate into the lower mantle is the subject of continuing debate which has substantial implications for the chemical and thermal evolution of the mantle here we identify lower mantle slab penetration events by comparing cenozoic plate motions at the earth s main subduction zones with motions predicted by fully dynamic models of the upper mantle phase of subduction driven solely by downgoing plate density whereas subduction of older intrinsically denser lithosphere occurs at rates consistent with the model younger lithosphere of ages less than about 60 myr often subducts up to two times faster while trench motions are very low we conclude that the most likely explanation is that older lithosphere subducting under significant trench retreat tends to lie down flat above the transition to the high viscosity lower mantle whereas younger lithosphere which is less able to drive trench retreat and deforms more readily buckles and thickens slab thickening enhances buoyancy volume times density and thereby stokes sinking velocity thus facilitating fast lower mantle penetration such an interpretation is consistent with seismic images of the distribution of subducted material in upper and lower mantle thus we identify a direct expression of time dependent flow between the upper and lower mantle

the spectrum of persistent volcanic flank instability a review and proposed framework based on kīlauea piton de la fournaise and etna abstract persistent motion of the south flank of k lauea volcano hawai i has been known for several decades but has only recently been identified at other large basaltic volcanoes namely piton de la fournaise la reunion and etna sicily thanks to the advent of space geodetic techniques nevertheless understanding of long term flank instability is based largely on the example of k lauea despite the large differences in the manifestations and mechanisms of the process when viewed through a comparative lens for example the rate of flank motion at k lauea is several times that of etna and piton de la fournaise and is accommodated on a slip plane several km deeper than is probably present at the other two volcanoes gravitational spreading also appears to be the dominant driving force at k lauea given the long term steady motion of the volcano s south flank regardless of eruptive intrusive activity whereas magmatic activity plays a larger role in flank deformation at etna and piton de la fournaise k lauea and etna however are both characterized by heavily faulted flanks while piton de la fournaise shows little evidence for flank faulting a helpful means of understanding the spectrum of persistent flank motion at large basaltic edifices may be through a framework defined on one hand by magmatic activity which encompasses both magma supply and edifice size and on the other hand by the structural setting of the volcano especially the characteristics of the subvolcanic basement or subhorizontal intravolcanic weak zones a volcano s size and magmatic activity will dictate the extent to which gravitational and magmatic forces can drive motion of an unstable flank and possibly the level of faulting of that flank while the volcano s structural setting governs whether or not a plane of weakness exists beneath or within the edifice and can facilitate flank slip considering persistent flank instability using this conceptual model is an alternative to using a single volcano as a type example especially given that the example is usually k lauea which defines an extreme end of the spectrum and can provide a basis for understanding why flank motion may or may not exist on other large basaltic volcanoes worldwide

survival times of subducted slab remnants in numerical models of mantle flow abstract we examine the rate of sinking of truncated subducted slabs in a series of idealized three dimensional and two dimensional simulations using a 3d cartesian numerical convection model our goal is to account for the inference from seismic tomographic studies that some slab remnants have persisted at mid mantle depths for 150 myr or more while others have descended to the base of the mantle where they have spread laterally for great distances along the core mantle boundary we consider the influence of initial slab dimensions mantle viscosity stratification slab dip angle and three dimensionality on the slab survival time the time required to clear the upper half of the mantle of all measurable traces of a previous subduction zone we find slab survival time is determined by two principal factors the initial slab length and the viscosity stratification of the mantle survival time decreases with increasing slab length and increases with increasing viscosity stratification for a viscosity jump by a factor of 100 at a depth of 660 km shallow slab remnants remain in the upper 1500 km of the mantle for times well in excess of 150 myr while deep slabs draw their upper portions out of the upper half of the mantle in about 150 myr the dependence of the age of slab remnants on both the total depth extent of the original slab and the degree of viscosity stratification has not been studied previously it can account for the different rates of descent of slabs lying in close geographic proximity