EGU2020-20165
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20165
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The 2019 July Stromboli volcano paroxysm event: contribution of infrasound to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers

Emanuele Marchetti1, Maurizio Ripepe1, Alexis Le Pichon2, Constantino Listowski2, Lars Ceranna3, Patrick Hupe3, Christoph Pilger3, Sandro Matos4, Nicolau Wallenstein4, Pierrick Mialle5, and Philippe Hereil6
Emanuele Marchetti et al.
  • 1University of Firenze, Department of Earth Sciences, Firenze, Italy (emanuele.marchetti@unifi.it)
  • 2CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91680 Arpajon, Franc
  • 3BGR, B4.3, D-30655 Hannover, Germany
  • 4Universidade dos Açores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal
  • 5CTBTO, IDC, Vienna International Center, 1400, Vienna, Austria
  • 6Meteo France, VAAC Toulouse, 31057 Toulouse, France

With the advent of civil aviation and growth in air traffic, the problem of volcanic ash encounter has become an issue of importance as a prompt response to volcanic eruptions is required to mitigate the impact of the volcanic hazard on aviation. Many volcanoes worldwide are poorly monitored, and most of the time notifications of volcanic eruptions are reported mainly based on satellite observations or visual observations. Among ground-based volcano monitoring techniques, infrasound is the only one capable of detecting explosive eruptions from distances of thousands of kilometers. On July 3 and August 28, 2019, two paroxysmal explosions occurred at Stromboli volcano. The events, that are similar in terms of energy and size to the peak explosive activity reported historically for the volcano, produced a significant emission of scoria, bombs and lapilli, that affected the whole island and fed an eruptive column that rose almost 5 km above the volcano. The collapse of the eruptive column also produced pyroclastic flows along the Sciara del Fuoco, a sector collapse on the northern flank of the volcano.

Being one of the best-monitored volcanoes of the world, the 2019 Stromboli paroxysmal explosions were observed in real-time and Civil Protection procedures started immediately. However, notification to the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) was not automated, and the VAA was issued only long after the event occurrence. The two explosions produced infrasound signals that were detected by several infrasound stations as far as Norway (IS37, 3380 km) and Azores islands (IS42, 3530 km). Despite of the latency due to the propagation time, infrasound-based notification arrays precedes the Volcanic Ash Advisories (VAAs) issued by Toulouse VACC. Following the same procedure applied for the Volcano Information System developed in the framework of the ARISE project, we show how infrasound array analysis could allow automatic, near-real-time identification of these eruptions with timely reliable source information. We highlight the need for an integration of the CTBT IMS infrasound network with local and regional infrasound arrays capable of providing a timely early warning to VAACs. This study opens new perspectives in volcano monitoring and could represent, in the future, an efficient tool in supporting VAACs activity.

How to cite: Marchetti, E., Ripepe, M., Le Pichon, A., Listowski, C., Ceranna, L., Hupe, P., Pilger, C., Matos, S., Wallenstein, N., Mialle, P., and Hereil, P.: The 2019 July Stromboli volcano paroxysm event: contribution of infrasound to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20165, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20165, 2020.

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