Mt. Etna volcano: A seismological framework

Over the last 30 years Mt. Etna has had a high rate of eruptive events and therefore constitutes an important natural laboratory for the understanding of eruptive processes and lava uprising in basalt-type volcanic environments. Several years of high quality seismological observations have revealed how both Etna's seismicity and eruptions do not always have a fortuitous nature.

In this work we present the state of seismological research, and discuss the role of seismic monitoring at Mt. Etna in forecasting volcanic activity. In particular, the most recent effusive eruptions, occurring in 1989, 1991-1993,1999 and 2001, have offered good examples for quantitative analysis based on seismic data in digital format. Seismic observations and topical studies on the different types of signals (earthquakes, tremor, long-period events and explosion quakes), recorded during these eruptions, have allowed us to carry out detailed investigations on major aspects of seismicity. In particular, we focused on the interaction between regional and local stress fields along with seismic constraints on the magma uprising and eruptive processes. The overall findings provide valuable insights into the behavior of Mt. Etna volcano as well as a contribution to modeling the volcano dynamics in recent years. In particular, the space-time distribution of seismicity together with the Fault Plane Solution results and stress and tensor analysis have proved to be crucial in defining that volcanism, seismicity and tectonics in the Etnean area interact closely.