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Relationship between the flank sliding of the South East Crater (Mt. Etna, Italy) and the paroxysmal event of November 16, 2006

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Abstract

Over the last 2 years, the south east crater (SEC) at Mt. Etna (Italy) has been characterised by the intermittent emission of lava flows, often accompanied by paroxysmal episodes with violent strombolian activity and/or lava fountains. One of the most intense and intriguing episodes occurred on November 16, 2006 during strombolian and effusive activity from the very top of the SEC. At the eastern base of the crater, a violent and short-lasting outburst generated a 300-m-high eruptive curtain of finely fragmented magma and steam, which collapsed in a few seconds giving rise to a small but significant pyroclastic flow. The paroxysm was preceded by progressive sliding of the eastern flank of the SEC edifice, which led to the formation of a large niche. Previously published models explain the outburst as due to rapid vaporisation of water contained in sediments on contact with hot lava flowing along the flank of the SEC or, alternatively, to gravitational collapse of a destabilised portion of the eastern flank of the crater. However, several lines of evidence suggest that these models do not adequately explain the paroxysm, which we propose was associated with the explosive emission of magma during the rapid opening of an ESE-WNW-oriented fracture at the eastern base of the SEC. Moreover, geochemical data of the products associated with this episode show that they are the most primitive and gas-rich among those erupted during the entire 2006 period. We suggest that the paroxysm of November 16, 2006, which occurred at base of the SEC, was a magma outburst due to rapid ground fracturing related to a drop in confining pressure upon the underlying dyke consequent to the sliding of the eastern flank of the SEC cone. Specifically, the unloaded shallow portion of the feeding dyke did not restrain the arrival of a new batch of gas-rich magma, which worked its way out by fracturing the base of the niche at its weakest point. This paroxysm appears significant because it reveals the potential development of syn-eruptive dynamics acting directly on the uppermost portion of the plumbing system which is able to generate pyroclastic flows even on basaltic volcanoes such as Mount Etna.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to RAI Italian Public Television for having kindly given permission to reproduce on the website http://etnalogos.net, exclusively for scientific reasons, the video filmed by G. Tomarchio concerning the eruptive sequence of the November 16, 2006 paroxysm, which was vital to understanding the mechanism of the fracture opening. The photo sequence of the pyroclastic flow in Fig. 5 was provided by S. Genovese. B. van Wyk de Vries is greatly acknowledged for his editorial guidance, A. Duncan, T. Druitt and A. Harris contributed with their constructive suggestions to improve the quality of the earlier version of this paper. This research was supported by grants from the University of Catania Research Projects 2005 and 2006 (Recent Etna activity in the frame of regional volcanism). Finally, we wish to thank Dr. M. D. Wilkinson for his revision of the English version of the manuscript.

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  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università di Catania, Corso Italia 57, 95129, Catania, Italy

    Carmelo Ferlito, Marco Viccaro, Eugenio Nicotra & Renato Cristofolini

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  1. Carmelo Ferlito
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  2. Marco Viccaro
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  3. Eugenio Nicotra
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  4. Renato Cristofolini
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Correspondence to Marco Viccaro.

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Editorial responsibility: B. van Wyk de Vries

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Ferlito, C., Viccaro, M., Nicotra, E. et al. Relationship between the flank sliding of the South East Crater (Mt. Etna, Italy) and the paroxysmal event of November 16, 2006. Bull Volcanol 72, 1179–1190 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-010-0384-5

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