Finite Element Modeling of Ground Deformation and Gravity Data Observed at Mt Etna During the 1993-1997 Inflation Phase

Elastic finite element models are applied to investigate the effects of topography and medium heterogeneities on the surface deformation and the gravity field produced by volcanic pressure sources. Changes in the gravity field cannot be interpreted only in terms of gain of mass disregarding the deformations of the rocks surrounding the source. Contributions to gravity variations depend also on surface and subsurface mass redistribution driven by dilation of the volcanic source. Both ground deformation and gravity changes were firstly evaluated by solving a coupled axial symmetric problem to estimate the effects of topography and medium heterogeneities. Numerical results show significant discrepancies in the ground deformation and gravity field compared to those predicted by analytical solutions, which disregard topography, elastic heterogeneities and density subsurface structures. With this in mind, we reviewed the expected gravity changes accompanying the 1993- 1997 inflation phase on Mt Etna by setting up a fully 3D finite element model in which we used the real topography of Etna volcano to include the geometry and seismic tomography data to infer crustal heterogeneities. The inflation phase was clearly detected by different geodetic techniques (EDM, GPS, SAR and leveling data) that showed a uniform expansion of the overall volcano edifice. When the gravity data are integrated with ground deformation data and a coupled modeling is solved, a mass intrusion is expected at depth to justify both ground deformation and gravity observation. Our findings highlighted two main points. Firstly, geodetic and gravity data, which independently reflect the state of volcano, need to be jointly modeled in order to obtain a reliable estimate of the depth and density of the intrusion. Secondly, the application of finite element methods allows for a more accurate modeling procedure, which might provide sensible insight into volcanic source definition.