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Three‐dimensional resistivity tomography of Vulcan's forge, Vulcano Island, southern Italy
Author(s) -
Revil A.,
Johnson T. C.,
Finizola A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2010gl043983
Subject(s) - volcano , impact crater , geology , electrical conductor , seafloor spreading , hydrothermal circulation , electrical resistivity and conductivity , mineralogy , geophysics , seismology , materials science , physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , composite material
9,525 DC resistivity measurements were taken along 9 profiles crossing the volcanic edifice of La Fossa di Vulcano (the forge of God Vulcan in ancient Roman mythology), Vulcano Island (Italy) using a total of 958 electrode locations. This unique data set has been inverted in 3D by minimizing the L 2 norm of the data misfit using a Gauss‐Newton approach. The true 3D inversion was performed using parallel processing on an unstructured tetrahedral mesh containing 75,549 finite‐element nodes and 398,208 elements to accurately model the topography of the volcanic edifice. The 3D tomogram shows a very conductive body (>0.1 S/m) comprised inside the Pietre Cotte crater with conductive volumes that are consistent with the position of temperature and CO 2 anomalies at the ground surface. This conductive body is interpreted as the main hydrothermal body. It is overlaid by a resistive and cold cap in the bottom of the crater. The position of the conductive body is consistent with the deformation source responsible for the observed 1990–1996 deflation of the volcano associated with a decrease of hydrothermal activity.