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A Reappraisal of Shear Wave Splitting Parameters from Italian Active Volcanic Areas Through a Semiautomatic Algorithm Francesca Bianco, Lucia Zaccarelli

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A Reappraisal of Shear Wave Splitting Parameters from Italian Active Volcanic Areas Through a Semiautomatic Algorithm Francesca Bianco, Lucia Zaccarelli A reappraisal of shear wave splitting parameters from Italian active volcanic areas through a semiautomatic algorithm Francesca Bianco, Lucia Zaccarelli To cite this version: Francesca Bianco, Lucia Zaccarelli. A reappraisal of shear wave splitting parameters from Italian active volcanic areas through a semiautomatic algorithm. Journal of Seismology, Springer Verlag, 2008, 13 (2), pp.253-266. 10.1007/s10950-008-9125-z. hal-00478438 HAL Id: hal-00478438 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00478438 Submitted on 30 Apr 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. J Seismol (2009) 13:253–266 DOI 10.1007/s10950-008-9125-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE A reappraisal of shear wave splitting parameters from Italian active volcanic areas through a semiautomatic algorithm Francesca Bianco · Lucia Zaccarelli Received: 6 June 2007 / Accepted: 18 December 2007 / Published online: 11 September 2008 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract Shear wave splitting parameters repre- of the fast polarization (ϕ) and percentage of sent a useful tool to detail the stress changes shear wave anisotropy (ξ). occurring in volcanic environments before im- pending eruptions. In the present paper, we dis- Keywords Shear wave splitting parameters · play the parameter estimates obtained through Temporal variations · Volcano seismology · implementation of a semiautomatic algorithm ap- Semiautomatic techniques plied to all useful datasets of the following Italian active volcanic areas: Mt. Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, and Mt. Etna. Most of these datasets have been 1 Introduction the object of several studies (Bianco et al., Annali di Geofisica, XXXXIX 2:429–443, 1996,JVol- Shear wave splitting is the elastic equivalent of the canol Geotherm Res 82:199–218, 1998a, Geophys well-known phenomenon of optical birefringence. Res Lett 25(10):1545–1548, 1998b, Phys Chem A shear wave propagating through an anisotropic Earth 24:977–983, 1999, J Volcanol Geotherm Res volume splits into two S-waves (qS1 and qS2) that 133:229–246, 2004, Geophys J Int 167(2):959–967, travel with different velocities and different po- 2006; Del Pezzo et al., Bull Seismol Soc Am larization directions. This process generates two 94(2):439–452, 2004). Applying the semiautomatic observables: Td is the time delay between the two algorithm, we confirmed the results obtained in split S-waves, and ϕ is the polarization direction of previous studies, so we do not discuss in much the faster one, qS1. detail each of our findings but give a general Seismic anisotropy is widely observed in the overview of the anisotropic features of the inves- upper crust regardless of the tectonic setting. This tigated Italian volcanoes. In order to make a com- phenomenon has been interpreted as occurring in parison among the different volcanic areas, we zones of fluid-filled cracks, microcracks, or pref- present our results in terms of the main direction erentially oriented pore spaces. The time evo- lution of anisotropic distribution of microcracks due to a differential stress, according to the non- linear anisotropic poroelasticity (APE) model, F. Bianco (B) · L. Zaccarelli is explained by fluid migration along pressure Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, gradients between neighboring microcracks and Sezione di Napoli-Osservatorio Vesuviano, Via Diocleziano 328, 80124, Naples, Italy pores (Crampin and Zatsepin 1997; Zatsepin and e-mail: [email protected] Crampin 1997). Stress intensity variations cause 254 J Seismol (2009) 13:253–266 modifications of the fluid mobility and conse- at the crater top. We found splitting parame- quently of the anisotropic characteristics of the ter variations from the background values during medium. In this framework, the shear wave split- two seismic swarms, in 1996 and 1999, in which ting parameters, Td and ϕ, are indicators of the largest earthquakes were M 3.4 and M 3.6, the stress field in the upper crust. Time delay respectively. variations are related to changes in microcrack Campi Flegrei is a resurgent caldera in southern density and aspect ratio, while the polarization Italy. Its formation has been related to two main directions of the two S-waves interchange (90◦ flip explosive eruptions occurred about 38 and 12 ky of ϕ) when the system reaches the overpressur- ago. The most recent activity in 1538 has been the ized regime (Crampin et al. 2004 and references formation of a 200-m-high spatter cone, preceded therein). by a ground uplift of several meters. After this Shear wave splitting parameters have been event, the caldera floor started sinking continu- studied in several volcanic environments such as ously and aseismically. This general trend is occa- Hawaii (Booth et al. 1992; Munson et al. 1995) sionally interrupted by faster resurgence episodes and Long Valley Caldera (Savage et al. 1990). accompanied by earthquake swarms. We mea- Changes in shear wave splitting have been ob- sured the splitting parameters during the three served during the 1989 and the 2001 eruption uplifts: 1982–1984 (180 cm of deformation); 2000 at Mt. Etna, Sicily (Bianco et al. 1998b, 2006), (6 cm of deformation); and 2005–2006 (3 cm of before the 1996 eruption of Mount Ruapehu, deformation). We found a complex pattern for New Zealand (Miller and Savage 2001; Gerst and both splitting parameters in both spatial and tem- Savage 2004), before the 1996 October eruption poral domains. at Vatnajökull, Iceland (Volti and Crampin 2003), Mt. Etna rises in the NE part of Sicily, Italy. and before the M 3.6 earthquake at Mt. Vesuvius, The volcano has experienced many eruptions, and 1999 October (Del Pezzo et al. 2004). its almost persistent seismicity makes it a nat- The main goals of our analysis are: (1) to ural laboratory for volcano-seismic studies. We improve the splitting parameter estimation for calculated the splitting parameters searching for monitoring purposes; (2) to define Td and ϕ their variations related to the 1988, 1989, and 2001 background values (i.e., out of eruptive periods); eruptions. The background value of ϕ is parallel and (3) to look for temporal variation of the to the direction of the compressive stress field two observables and its relationship with volcanic acting on the area, but it shows some variation activity. especially before or during the eruptions. Also the Regarding the first point, we set up a semi- time delays changed, depending on the periods automatic procedure for measuring the splitting considered and on the eruptive activity. parameters in quasi-real time. Regarding points It has been possible to test the validity of this (2) and (3), we performed shear wave splitting new semiautomatic method through the compari- measurements on local earthquakes recorded in son of our results with those obtained in previous the following Italian active volcanoes: Vesuvius, works for the same datasets. We interpret the ob- Campi Flegrei, and Etna. served time variations of the splitting parameters Mt. Vesuvius is a stratovolcano located in the as indicators of complex stress changes, discussing Campanian Plain (southern Italy) that experi- their role as precursors of critical events such as enced various regimes of eruptive activity from major earthquakes or eruptions in the investigated effusive to Plinian. Its last eruption occurred in areas. March, 1944 and was a mild effusive event that concluded a period of almost continuous activity dating back to 1631. Since the 1944 eruption 2 Methodology ended, the volcano has started a period of quies- cence that seems to indicate a closure of its con- We first applied a rigorous selection on the seismic duit. Up to the time of writing, Vesuvius activity records according to the following criteria: (1) consists of low seismicity and a little degassing clear shear wave onsets with high signal-to-noise J Seismol (2009) 13:253–266 255 ratios: S/N >6 and (2) incidence angles strictly already know what the signals look like. Hence, inside the shear wave window (theoretically 35◦) we run the program with a first window guess to ensure no interaction with the free surface. To and looked at the resulting Td distribution. Then, obtain the signal-to-noise ratio, we measured the we calibrated the window length on the charac- noise amplitude before the P-wave onset on all teristic time delay found for any particular group three components. We estimated the two split- of seismic records. In the second parameter es- ting parameters through the implementation of a timation, however, the use of cross-correlation semiautomatic algorithm. This method minimizes function requires signals longer than a period and subjectivity and reduces the analysis time required short enough to not include other phase arrivals with no loss in accuracy. The semi-automation, later than the S-waves. Our algorithm estimates in fact, consists of a first step of P and S manual the S-wave cycle length from the power spec- picking, a procedure that needs the precision of an trum calculated over a time window of length expert eye, and a second step of determination of [tp; tp + ts + 0.5 s]. We check the stability of the the two measures: leading polarization and time results trying different window lengths. Summa- delay. There exist many ways for estimating the rizing, our algorithm needs the definition of two splitting parameters, all of them have different time windows calibrated on signal characteristics qualities and validity ranges (Crampin and Gao (an example is in Fig.
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