Unravelling the Geometry of Unstable Flanks of Submarine Volcanoes by Magnetic Investigation: the Case of the "sciara del Fuoco" Scar (stromboli Volcano, Aeolian Islands)

Stromboli is the easternmost island of the Aeolian Archipelago (Tyrrhenian Sea) and one of the most active Mediterranean volcanoes. The volcanic edifice rises over 3000 m above the surrounding seafloor, from a depth of about 2000 m b.s.l. to 924 m a.s.l. The north-western flank of volcano is deeply scarred by a destructive collapse event occurred ca. 5000 years ago, and forming a big horseshoe-shaped depression, known as "Sciara del Fuoco" (SdF). This depression, 3 Km long and 2 Km wide, is supposed to extend into the sea down to 700 m b.s.l., while further basinward it turns into a fan-shaped mounted deposit down to about 2600 m b.s.l., where it merges the so-called "Stromboli Canyon". Since its formation, emerged and submerged portions of the SdF have been progressively filled by the volcanic products of the persistent activity of the Stromboli Volcano. In the last 10 years, two paroxysmal eruptions occurred in the Stromboli Volcano, during 2002-2003 and February-April 2007. During both events, the SdF has been partially covered by lava flows and affected by slope failures, also causing (for the 2002-2003 event) a local tsunami. Since the 1990's, and especially after the last two paroxysms, the submerged extension of the SdF has been intensively investigated by using swath bathymetry data. We focused principally on the magnetic anomaly pattern of the submerged SdF since the chaotic depositional system virtually cancels magnetic remanence (which at Stromboli can reach 5-10 A/m values), thus lowering magnetic residual intensity. On July 2012 we acquired new detailed sea-surface magnetic data of the SdF from the shoreline to about 7 km offshore, where the depth is more than 1800 m b.s.l. We collected data thanks to the Italian Navy ship "Nave Aretusa" and by using the Marine Magnetics SeaSPY magnetometer. At the same time, new bathymetric data were acquired in the same area by using a Kongsberg Marine multibeam systems. Although the morphologic features of the submarine prosecution of the SdF system were already studied and unveiled, the complete description of the in-depth extension of the system and the overall volume estimation is still poorly known. This has important implications for the hazard assessment of the landslide structure and most generally of the entire volcanic edifice. The application of a classical geomagnetic prospection to describe a landslide feature is an uncommon procedure yet it can be considered as innovative approach, having the advantages of effectiveness, low cost and expedition typical of the geomagnetic survey. Here we present the interpretation of the newly acquired high-resolution magnetic dataset, thanks to susceptibility and magnetic remanence values gathered from on-land rock samples at Stromboli. A 3D inverse model is here proposed, allowing a full definition of the submerged SdF structure geometry.