Abstract Vulcano is one of the seven volcanic islands composing the Aeolian Islands archipelago (Southern Italy), which also includes three other active volcanoes. The island was originally a stratovolcano like Stromboli; afterwards, its shape turned towards a complex structure composed of several volcanic landforms of different sizes. This is due to the great variability of the tectonic and volcanic phenomena, presently showing a volcano made by two calderas, a lava dome complex and two small active cones. The largest of them is the tuff cone of La Fossa, hosted in the middle of a 3‐km‐wide caldera structure (La Fossa caldera), whose borders are visible on the southern and western sides of the island. Its last eruption occurred in 1888–1890. At present, Vulcano is characterized by weak shallow seismicity and intense fumarolic activity mainly concentrated within the crater of the La Fossa cone and along its rims during a recent unrest phase started in 2021, and measured with a multiparametric monitoring network.
It is currently impractical to measure what happens in a volcano during an explosive eruption, and up to now much of our knowledge depends on theoretical models. Here we show, by means of large‐scale experiments, that the regime of explosive events can be constrained on the basis of the characteristics of magma at the point of fragmentation and conduit geometry. Our model, whose results are consistent with the literature, is a simple tool for defining the conditions at conduit exit that control the most hazardous volcanic regimes. Besides the well‐known convective plume regime, which generates pyroclastic fallout, and the vertically collapsing column regime, which leads to pyroclastic flows, we introduce an additional regime of radially expanding columns, which form when the eruptive gas‐particle mixture exits from the vent at overpressure with respect to atmosphere. As a consequence of the radial expansion, a dilute collapse occurs, which favors the formation of density currents resembling natural base surges. We conclude that a quantitative knowledge of magma fragmentation, i.e., particle size, fragmentation energy, and fragmentation speed, is critical for determining the eruption regime.
Abstract The 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius is the first documented Plinian eruption, also famous for the archaeological ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Although much is known regarding the eruption dynamics and magma reservoir, little is known about the reservoir shape and growth, and related ground deformation. Numerical modelling by Finite Element Method was carried out, aimed at simulating the reservoir growth and ground deformation with respect to the reservoir shape (prolate, spherical, oblate) and magma overpressure. The modelling was tuned with volcanological, petrological and paleoenvironmental ground deformation constraints. Results indicate that the highest magma overpressure is achieved considering a prolate reservoir, making it as the most likely shape that led to eruption. Similar deformations but lower overpressures are obtained considering spherical and oblate reservoirs. These results demonstrate that ground deformation may not be indicative of eruption probability, style/size, and this has direct implications on surveillance at active explosive volcanoes.
