Joint analysis of electric and gravimetric data for volcano monitoring. Application to data acquired at Vulcano Island (southern Italy) from 1993 to 1996

Understanding the dynamics of volcanic-hydrothermal systems is a key factor for discriminating between magmatic and hydrothermal nature of the sources responsible for the unrest phenomena observed in active volcanic areas. Numerous studies of geophysical data monitoring in volcano-geothermal districts has indeed proven that close relationships exist between the volcanic and hydrothermal fluid circulation and the anomalous geophysical signals observed at the ground surface. In this paper, a simultaneous analysis that integrates resistivity and gravity data is suggested as a useful tool to infer a consistent conceptual model of hydrothermal volcanic systems and their evolution. An application of the proposed analysis to repeated resistivity and gravity measurements performed on Vulcano Island (Aeolian Archipelago, Sicily, southern Italy) is presented with the aim of gaining information on the dynamics of the volcanic-hydrothermal system. The examined period ranges from December 1993 to September 1996, when significant changes in chemical properties, temperatures and emission rates of La Fossa crater fumaroles were observed, all indicating an increase in the flux of hot deep magmatic gases. The results of our analysis, which refers to a profile located at the foot of the northwest flank of La Fossa cone, suggest that underground cyclic water-to-vapour transformations govern the shallow hydrothermal system dynamics, generally described by a negative correlation between the monitored resistivity and gravity data. The occurrence of positive correlations between the two analysed parameters could be ascribed to volcanic dynamics, which would mask the normal hydrological and hydrothermal system behaviour.