M. Guidarelli1, A. Zille, A. Saraò1, M. Natale2, C. Nunziata2 and G.F. Panza1,3
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Available at: http://www.ictp.it/~pub_off IC/2006/145 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and International Atomic Energy Agency THE ABDUS SALAM INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS SHEAR-WAVE VELOCITY MODELS AND SEISMIC SOURCES IN CAMPANIAN VOLCANIC AREAS: VESUVIUS AND PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS M. Guidarelli1, A. Zille, A. Saraò1, M. Natale2, C. Nunziata2 and G.F. Panza1,3 1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Trieste, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy 3 The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy MIRAMARE – TRIESTE December 2006 Abstract This chapter summarizes a comparative study of shear-wave velocity models and seismic sources in the Campanian volcanic areas of Vesuvius and Phlegraean Fields. These velocity models were obtained through the nonlinear inversion of surface- wave tomography data, using as a priori constraints the relevant information available in the literature. Local group velocity data were obtained by means of the frequency-time analysis for the time period between 0.3 and 2 s and were combined with the group velocity data for the time period between 10 and 35 s from the regional events located in the Italian peninsula and bordering areas and two station phase velocity data corresponding to the time period between 25andl00s.In order to invert Ray lei gh wave dispersion curves, we applied the nonlinear inversion method called hedgehog and retrieved average models for the first 30-35 km of the lithosphere, with the lower part of the upper mantle being kept fixed on the basis of existing regional models. A feature that is common to the two volcanic areas is a low shear velocity layer which is centered at the depth of about 10 km, while on the outside of the cone and along a path in the northeastern part of the Vesuvius area this layer is absent. This low velocity can be associated with the presence of partial melting and, therefore, may represent a quite diffused crustal magma reservoir which is fed by a deeper one that is regional in character and located in the uppermost mantle. The study of seismic source in terms of the moment tensor is suitable for an investigation of physical processes within a volcano; indeed, its components, double couple, compensated linear vector dipole, and volumetric, can be related to the movements of magma and fluids within the volcanic system. Although for many recent earth• quake events the percentage of double couple component is high, our results also show the presence of significant non-double couple components in both volcanic areas. 6.1. INTRODUCTION The Campanian region is characterized by the presence of different volcanic areas; among these are the volcanoes Vesuvius and Phlegraean Fields (Fig. 6.1a). Mt. Ve• suvius is an active volcano that is famous for its large plinian eruption which occurred in 79 A.D. It is one of the volcanoes with the highest risk from future eruptions, because of the intense urbanization around it and on its slopes. Mt. Vesuvius formed inside the older stratovolcano Somma with an age of about 400 ky (Brocchini et al., 2001) and is characterized by long periods of quiescence which are interrupted by plinian or subplinian eruptions and by the periods of strombolian activity that are frequently interrupted by violent explosive-effusive eruptions (Santacroce, 1987; San- tacroce et al., 1994). After several centuries of quiescence, its recent period of persistent volcanism started after the subplinian eruption in 1631 and, with few interruptions, lasted until 1944 (Rolandi et al., 1993; Rosi et al., 1993). Since 1944, the volcano has been quiescent and producing only moderate seismicity and fumarolic emissions. Recently, several studies have contributed to the understanding of the inter• nal structure of Mt. Vesuvius. Its shallow structure corresponding to the depth 1 -(5300001 420000 425000 430000 435000 440003 4450C0 ^50000 4550C0 463000 465003 470000 W LONGITUDE Fig. 6.1. (a) Map of Phlegraean Fields and Vesuvius volcanic areas (modified after Vilardo et al., 2001), with the location of seismic stations, (b) and (c) Models obtained after nonlinear inversion: The whole set of solutions (thin lines), the explored part of the parameter space (gray area), and the selected solution (thick line) are shown for Phlegraean Fields (b) and representative stations at Vesuvius (c), CONE is the average structural model for the stations on the cone, reported as white triangles (BK.N. BAF, BKS, BKE, SGV). of ?\-A km has been analysed in the framework of the project TOMOVES (Zollo et al., 1996; De Natale et al., 1998, 2004). First results from active exper• iments (Zollo et al., 1996; De Natale et al., 199S) identified a central, high seismic velocity, anomaly around the crater axis of the volcano at a shallow depth. In general, the shallow geological structure of Mt. Vesuvius is characterized by a strong velocity heterogeneity and several studies suggest the absence of a shallow magma chamber in the first 5 km below the sea level (De Natale et al., 199S; Scarpa et al., 2002). At the depths greater than 5 km, however, Civetta et al. (2004) suggest the presence of a magmatic reservoir at about 8 km and extending discontinuously down to 20km. Using P-wave travel times, De Gori et al. (2001) found a low- velocity region beneath Vesuvius and related this velocity to the presence of a magmatic reservoir in the lower crust underneath the volcano. The Phlegraean Fields' volcanic complex includes the volcanic islands of Ischia and Procida and some submarine vents in the northwestern Bay of Naples. This is a complex area which is located some 15 km to the west of Naples and dominated by a caldera whose origin is related to the eruption of the Campanian Ignimbrite some 37 000 years B.P. and to the eruption of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff some 12 000 years B.P. (Orsi et al., 1996). The area has been affected by many episodes of a volcanism, seismicity, ground uplift, and subsidence (De Natale et al., 1991), and historically is well documented for the last 2000 years. Two episodes of bradyseism took place in 1970-1972 and 1984-1984, when the ground uplift in the central Pozzuoli area reached 70 and 185 cm, respectively. Since January 1985, the area has been slowly deflating (30 cm by the end of 1986) and the seismicity has remained at very low levels until July 2000. Several studies have been carried out on the seismicity of Phlegraean Fields cor• responding to the unrest period 1984-1986 (De Natale and Zollo, 1986), and several 2 GAURO ASTRONI GOLFO 0 ■!• — —I 10 10 20 20 ^ - 30 30 012345012345012345 (b) Vs (kmte) CONE FTC SMC TTLJI L_ w - K) 10 10 ' E 1 2 — 1 CL LU Q — ■/(■: ■?a ■ 20 30- ■ 30 . 012345 0123^5 012345 (c) Vs (km/s) Fig.6.1. continued 3 models of the area have been proposed in the past decade. Ferrucci et al. (1989) investigated the crustal structure of the Campanian area from DSS experiment. They found a very rough topography of the crust-mantle interface across the Campanian area of quaternary volcanism and the least crustal thickness of about 25 km under Phlegraean Fields. Details about the shallow crust (4km) in the Bays of Naples and Pozzuoli were obtained by Finetti and Morelli (1974) by means of a seismic reflection exploration and by Mirabile et al. (1989) with a multichannel reflection seismic survey. Aster and Meyer (1988, 1989) used P- and S-wave pick times and proposed a three-dimensional model for the velocity structure in the Phlegraean Fields caldera. This model has been widely adapted for several studies in the area. Recently, Zollo et al. (2003) found no evidence of magma bodies under• neath the caldera down to the depths of 4-5 km. The internal structure of a volcanic area together with the analysis of earthquake mechanisms are very important for improving our knowledge of the dynamics of a volcano and, therefore, instrumental for further studies that aim to improve the definition of pre-eruptive and eruptive scenarios. We present below new structural models for Phlegraean Fields up to the depths of about 30 km. The results from these models are then compared to the analogous models obtained for Mt. Vesuvius by Natale et al. (2005). The concluding part of our study is devoted to a comparison between the main features of earthquake sources obtained with the full seismic moment tensor inversion, both at Phlegraean Fields and Vesuvius. 6.2. SHEAR-WAVE VELOCITY MODELS In the period between January 1983 and September 1984 more than 10 000 events were recorded at Phlegraean Fields as a consequence of the last bradyseism episode. A selection of these events, with local magnitudes between 0.1 and 4.2 (Del Pezzo et al., 1987), has been analysed by Guidarelli et al. (2002) to obtain Rayleigh wave group velocities and tomographical maps for the Phlegraean Fields area, using the surface-wave tomography method of Ditmar and Yanovskaya (1987) and Yanovskaya and Ditmar (1990). The regionalized dispersion curves obtained from tomography were inverted to retrieve shear-wave velocity models for the uppermost part of the crust. On the regional scale, Panza et al. (2003) proposed new structural models for the lithosphere/asthenosphere system (elastic properties and thickness of the crust, lid, and asthenosphere) for 1° x 1° cells in the Calabrian Arc and adjacent seas. They produced these models through the nonlinear inversion of cellular dispersion data which were obtained from surface-wave tomography by using as a priori and in• dependent information the seismic constraints derived from previous studies.