DInSAR Data Reveal an Intriguing Contemporaneous Onset of Deep Deflation below Vesuvio and the Ongoing Campi Flegrei Uplift

Abstract

Campi Flegrei and Vesuvio volcanoes are only about 25 km apart, located on opposite sides of the densely inhabited area of Naples (Italy). Since neighbouring volcanoes may influence each other’s activity, it is of great interest to identify signs of any mutual interaction between Campi Flegrei and Vesuvio, or at least note coincidences in their recent deformation dynamics. After a large uplift, Campi Flegrei was generally subsiding from 1985 to 2001, while it has been uplifting—probably driven by deep magma inflation—at an accelerating rate since then. Here, we analysed the ground displacement in the whole Vesuvian area and its surroundings around the early 2000s using 1993–2010 ERS/ENVISAT ascending- and descending-orbit line-of-sight displacements obtained through the Small BAseline Subset Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry technique. Although ground deformation is slow—a few millimetres per year—Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis shows a sudden trend change around 2001. Pre-2001 velocity maps confirm previously published results: subsidence mainly occurred inside the caldera rim—probably because of the sliding and compaction of young incoherent materials—and in a few spots around 10 km from the summital crater; eastward displacement occurred in a lobe east of Vesuvio, and westward displacement occurred in a lobe west of Vesuvio, as in the case of the spreading of the volcanic edifice and/or extensional tectonics. We attribute the subsidence spots to the previous high local number of new buildings per year. Post-2002 velocity maps provide evidence of a very different scenario: general subsidence in the whole Vesuvian area, westward displacement in a lobe east of Vesuvio, and eastward displacement in a lobe west of Vesuvio. This last arrangement of the ground displacement field is made even clearer by subtracting the post-2002 velocity from the pre-2001 value. The results of our analyses are consistent with the deflation of a deep pressurised source. Additionally, Vesuvio’s deep seismicity decreased at the beginning of 2002. The coincidence between the transition from deflation to inflation at Campi Flegrei and the onset of deflation below Vesuvio may suggest the possible transfer of magma and/or magmatic fluids between the two plumbing systems.