Soil CO2 degassing on Mt Etna (Sicily) during the period 1989?1993: discrimination between climatic and volcanic influences

Abstract

Wide variations were measured in the diffuse CO2 flux through the soils in three selected areas of Mt Etna between August 1989 and March 1993. Degassing of CO2 from the area of Zafferana Etnea-S. Venerina, on the eastern slope of the volcano, has been determined to be more strongly influenced by meteorological parameters than the other areas. The seasonal component found in the data from this area has been excluded using a filtering algorithm based on the best fitting equation calculated from the correlation between CO2 flux values and those of air temperature. The filtered data appear to have variations temporally coincident with those from the other areas, thus suggesting a common and probably deep source of gas. The highest fluxes measured in the two most peripheral areas may correlate well with other geophysical and volcanological anomalous signals that preceded the strong eruption of 1991–1993 and that were interpreted as deep pressure increases. Anomalous decreases in CO2 fluxes accompanied the onset and the evolution of that eruption and have been interpreted as a sign of upward migration of the gas source. The variations of CO2 flux at the 1989 SE fracture have also given interesting information on the timing of the magmatic intrusion that has then fed the 1991–1993 eruption.