Active Volcanic Areas Research Articles

The automated infrared thermal imaging system for the continuous long-term monitoring of the surface temperature of the Vesuvius crater

<p>Infrared remote sensing monitoring is a significant tool aimed to integrated surveillance system of active volcanic areas. In this paper we describe the realization and the technological evolution of the permanent image thermal infrared (TIR) surveillance system of the Vesuvius volcano. The TIR monitoring station was installed on the Vesuvius crater rim on July 2004 in order to acquire scenes of the SW inner slope of Vesuvius crater that is characterized by a significant thermal emission. At that time, it represented the first achievement all over the world of a permanent surveillance thermal imaging system on a volcano. It has been working in its prototypal configuration till May 2007. The experience gained over years about the engineering, management and maintenance of TIR remote acquisition systems in extreme environmental conditions, allows us to design and realize a new release of the TIR monitoring station with improved functionalities and more flexibility for the IR image acquisition, management and storage, which became operational in June 2011. In order to characterize the thermal background of the Vesuvius crater at present state of volcanic quiescence, the time series of TIR images gathered between July 2004 and May 2012 were analyzed using a statistical approach. Results show no significant changes in the thermal radiation during the observation periods, so they can be assumed as representative of a background level to which refer for the interpretation of possible future anomalies related to a renewal of the volcanic dynamics of the Vesuvius volcano.</p>

Planning the improvement of a seismic network for monitoring active volcanic areas: the experience on Mt. Etna

Abstract. Seismology and geodesy are generally seen as the most reliable diagnostic tools for monitoring highly active or erupting volcanoes, like Mt. Etna. From the early 1980's, seismic activity was monitored at Mt. Etna by a permanent seismic network, progressively improved in the following years. This network has been considerably enhanced since 2005 by 24-bit digital stations equipped with broad-band (40 s) sensors. Today, thanks to a configuration of 33 broad-band and 12 short-period stations, we have a good coverage of the volcanic area as well as a high quality of the collected data. In the framework of the VULCAMED project a workgroup of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia has taken on the task of developing the seismic monitoring system, through the installation of other seismic stations. The choice of optimal sites must be clearly made through a careful analysis of the geometry of the existing seismic network. In this paper, we applied the Seismic Network Evaluation through Simulation in order to evaluate the performance of the Etna Seismic Network before and after the addition of the stations in the candidate sites. The main advantage of the adopted method is that we can evaluate the improvement of the network before the actual installation of the stations. Our analysis has permitted to identify some critical issues of the current permanent seismic network related to the lack of stations in the southern sector of the volcano, which is nevertheless affected by a number of seismogenic structures. We have showed that the addition of stations at the candidate sites would greatly extend the coverage of the network to the south by significantly reducing the errors in the hypocenter parameters estimation.

Lava tubes from the Paraná-Etendeka Continental Flood Basalt Province: Morphology and importance to emplacement models

Lava tubes are a common feature in active volcanic areas around the world. They are related to pahoehoe and 'a'ā lava flow fields, that are predominantly basaltic, and form as the most efficient mechanism to transport lava in insulated fedder pathways. Continental Flood Basalt Provinces (CFBs) are thick volcanic sequences of predominantly basaltic lava flows and flow fields, which cover huge areas and are often related to continental breakup. The proposed emplacement model for CFB's is synonymous with the inflation processes observed in modern active flows. Although pahoehoe and 'a'ā lava flows are recognized in CFB's provinces, good examples of lava tubes, pipes or tube systems are rarely reported. Lava feeder systems (tube/pipes) are a common feature of modern pahoehoe flow systems so it would be expected to find good examples in CFB's provinces formed by the same emplacement processes. Here we describe the morphology of two lava tube systems discovered in the Paraná CFB Province in Southern Brazil. Comparisons are made with active systems and the importance of CFB lava tube systems, and their recognition in the rock record, are discussed in the context of the current emplacement model.

The Bishop Tuff giant magma body: an alternative to the Standard Model

The Bishop Tuff, one of the most extensively studied high-silica rhyolite bodies in the world, is usually considered as the archetypical example of a deposit formed from a magma body characterized by thermal and compositional vertical stratification—what we call the Standard Model for the Bishop magma body. We present here new geothermometry and geobarometry results derived using a large database of previously published quartz-hosted glass inclusion compositions. Assuming equilibrium between melt and an assemblage composed of quartz, ±plagioclase, ±sanidine, +zircon, ±fluid, we use Zr contents in glass inclusions to derive quartz crystallization temperatures, and we use (1) silica contents in glass, (2) projection of glass compositions onto the haplogranitic (quartz-albite-orthoclase) ternary, and (3) phase equilibria calculations using rhyolite-MELTS, to constrain crystallization pressures. We find crystallization temperatures of ~740–750 °C for all inclusions from both early- and late-erupted pumice. Crystallization pressures for both early- and late-erupted inclusions are also very similar to each other, with averages of ~175–200 MPa. We find no evidence of late-erupted inclusions having been entrapped at higher temperatures or pressures than early-erupted inclusions, as would be expected by the Standard Model. We argue that the thermal gradient inferred from Fe–Ti oxides—the backbone of the Standard Model—does not reflect equilibrium pre-eruptive conditions; we also note that H2O–CO2 systematics of glass inclusions yields overlapping pressure ranges for early- and late-erupted inclusions, similar to the results presented here; and we show that glass inclusion and phenocryst compositions show bimodal distributions, suggestive of compositional separation between early- and late-erupted populations. These findings are inconsistent with the Standard Model. The similarity in crystallization conditions and the compositional separation between early- and late-erupted magmas suggest that two laterally juxtaposed independent magma reservoirs existed in the same region at the same time and co-erupted to form the Long Valley Caldera and the Bishop Tuff. This hypothesis would explain the lack of mixing between early- and late-erupted crystal populations in pumice clasts; it could also explain the inferred eruption pattern—which resulted in early-erupted magmas being deposited only to the south of the caldera—if the early-erupted magma body resided to the south and the late-erupted magma body was located to the north. Our alternative model is consistent with the patchy distribution of thermal anomalies and the inference of co-eruption of distinct magma types in active volcanic areas such as the central Taupo Volcanic Zone.

Carbon dioxide in the urban area of Naples: Contribution and effects of the volcanic source

Naples is a large city located between two active volcanic areas: Campi Flegrei to the W and Vesuvius to the SE. The Solfatara crater, inside the caldera of the Campi Flegrei and nearest to the western quarters of the city, is a prodigious source of natural CO2 with a mean emission rate of 1067ton/d, i.e. seven times higher than that of Vesuvius (151ton/d).This study shows that the area around the Solfatara and part of the urban area of Naples are affected by the volcanic plume when atmospheric circulatory patterns are dominated by the locally frequent sea breezes. Under these conditions the CO2 content in the air increases above normal values, reaching more than 1000ppm in proximity to the Solfatara crater to a few tens of ppm several kilometres from the source. Although these values do not indicate a health risk even under the most unfavourable atmospheric conditions, the volcanic source contributes to the total CO2 burden from all urban emissions and hence to overall air quality. An emission rate ten times higher than the present one would lead to an air CO2 concentration in excess of recommended health protection thresholds.

Near real‐time monitoring of volcanic surface deformation from GPS measurements at Long Valley Caldera, California

AbstractLong Valley Caldera in eastern California is an active volcanic area and has shown continued unrest in the last three decades. We have monitored surface deformation from Global Positioning System (GPS) data by using a projection method that we call Targeted Projection Operator (TPO). TPO projects residual time series with secular rates and periodic terms removed onto a predefined spatial pattern. We used the 2009–2010 slow deflation as a target spatial pattern. The resulting TPO time series shows a detailed deformation history including the 2007–2009 inflation, the 2009–2010 deflation, and a recent inflation that started in late‐2011 and is continuing at the present time (November 2012). The recent inflation event is about four times faster than the previous 2007–2009 event. A Mogi source of the recent event is located beneath the resurgent dome at about 6.6 km depth at a rate of 0.009 km3/yr volume change. TPO is simple and fast and can provide a near real‐time continuous monitoring tool without directly looking at all the data from many GPS sites in this potentially eruptive volcanic system.

Complex slab structure and arc magmatism beneath the Japanese Islands

A dense nationwide seismic network recently constructed in Japan has resulted in the production of a large amount of high-quality data that have enabled the high-resolution imaging of deep seismic structures in the Japanese subduction zone. Seismic tomography, precise locations of earthquakes, and focal mechanism research have allowed the identification of the complex structure of subducting slabs beneath Japan, revealing that the subducting Philippine Sea slab underneath southwestern Japan has an undulatory configuration down to a depth of 60–200km, and is continuous from Kanto to Kyushu without disruption or splitting, even within areas north of the Izu Peninsula. Analysis of the geometry of the Pacific and Philippine Sea slabs identified a broad contact zone beneath the Kanto Plain that causes anomalously deep interplate and intraslab earthquake activity. Seismic tomographic inversions using both teleseismic and local events provide a clear image of the deep aseismic portion of the Philippine Sea slab beneath the Japan Sea north of Chugoku and Kyushu, and beneath the East China Sea west of Kyushu down to a depth of ∼450km. Seismic tomography also allowed the identification of an inclined sheet-like seismic low-velocity zone in the mantle wedge beneath Tohoku. A recent seismic tomography work further revealed clear images of similar inclined low-velocity zones in the mantle wedge for almost all other areas of Japan. The presence of the inclined low-velocity zones in the mantle wedge across the entirety of Japan suggests that it is a common feature to all subduction zones. These low-velocity zones may correspond to the upwelling flow portion of subduction-induced convection systems. These upwelling flows reach the Moho directly beneath active volcanic areas, suggesting a link between volcanism and upwelling.

Locating a scatterer in the active volcanic area of Southern Peru from ambient noise cross-correlation

We report on a strong scatterer of seismic energy in the 5–10 s period range located in the volcanic arc of Southern Peru. It is superficially like an active noise source in that it produces a continuous signal that arrives earlier than the inter-station surface wave in the noise cross-correlations. However, it is clearly determined to be a scatterer based on the coda arrivals observed in the cross-correlations, and the fact that it scatters waves from earthquake sources. We model the scatterer as a cylinder approximately 5 km in diameter with a shear wave velocity 30 per cent lower than the background velocity. It is likely to exist at the depth of 5–10 km, and is located at 71.6°W/16.1°S with an error of 10 km, which is near the inactive volcano Nevado Chachani and the active volcano El Misti which recently erupted in 1985.

Aeromechanic analysis of pyroclastic density currents past a building

An aeromechanic analysis of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) past a building is carried out on the results of a computer simulation. The analysis shows that PDCs strongly interact with buildings, resulting in turbulent boundary layer separation and recirculation. These results could be used to better assess the hazard of PDCs impacting urban areas and be of service to civil protection authorities and urban planners who work in active volcanic areas.

Sulphur-gas concentrations in volcanic and geothermal areas in Italy and Greece: Characterising potential human exposures and risks

Passive samplers were used to measure the atmospheric concentrations of SO2 naturally emitted at three volcanoes in Italy (Etna, Vulcano and Stromboli) and of H2S naturally emitted at three volcanic/geothermal areas in Greece (Milos, Santorini and Nisyros). The measured concentrations and dispersion patterns varied with the strength of the source (open conduits or fumaroles), the meteorological conditions and the area topography. At Etna, Vulcano and Stromboli, SO2 concentrations reach values that are dangerous to people affected by bronchial asthma or lung diseases (>1000μgm−3). H2S values measured at Nisyros also exceed the limit considered safe for the same group of people (>3000μgm−3). The data obtained using passive samplers represent time-averaged values over periods from a few days up to 1month, and hence concentrations probably reached much higher peak values that were potentially also dangerous to healthy people. The present study provides evidence of a peculiar volcanic risk associated with tourist exploitation of active volcanic areas. This risk is particularly high at Mt. Etna, where the elderly and people in less-than-perfect health can easily reach areas with dangerous SO2 concentrations via a cableway and off-road vehicles.

Mapping the vulnerability for evacuation of the Campi Flegrei territorial system in case of a volcanic unrest

Over the past few decades, intense urban expansion has occurred over the Campi Flegrei territorial system without considering the volcanic risk. In this active volcanic area, where a short period evacuation could be necessary, the emergency management cannot be based solely on hazard-related information. The territorial and social features must also be considered. In this framework, the main purpose of this research is to point out the seriousness of the present setting of the Campi Flegrei territorial system in case an evacuation is necessary. Following the concept of regional evacuation, the zone to be involved in emergency planning was identified as the whole of the area threatened by the volcanic events of the past 10 ka. Inside this area the spatial relation between the resident distribution and the outflows of roads, railway stations and harbours, to facilitate evacuation, was investigated. A spatial relational GIS-based procedure was used to draw the territorial system vulnerability map, depicting the zones with different capabilities to support the evacuation of residents in case of volcanic activity. Based on the concept that people could leave the dangerous area by the means of transport supplied by Civil Protection, and using the threshold value of over-crowding of 0.70 people/m2, we identified the collection areas for residents to be immediately evacuated in case of volcanic unrest, and five macrozones displaying different capabilities to cope with an emergency phase.

Influence of volcanic activity on the quality of water collected in roof water catchment systems at Stromboli Island (Italy)

With the aim of detailing the interaction between volcanic emissions and water harvesting by Roof Water Catchment Systems (RWCSs), the present work illustrates the results of a study carried out at Stromboli Island, a small but densely populated active volcanic area in the South of Italy. Concentrations of major and trace elements determined in RWCS waters and sediments revealed clear clues of a contamination with gases and suspended particles of volcanic origin, even if the values of those contaminants considered by the World Health Organization as dangerous for human health are always below the Maximum Admitted Concentration (MAC). In particular, cistern water showed a composition similar to local coastal rainwater, with dissolved ions related not only to sea aerosol but also to volcanic gases and ash leaching, with a secondary enrichment in Ca ions due to the interaction with the limewashed surfaces of both roofs and cistern walls. The simulation of the potential increase in dissolved chemical species due to volcanic ash deposition on the water catchment surfaces indicates the possible exceedance of the MAC for several species. The symptoms of fluorosis affecting elderly people who were young at the time of the 1930–40 volcanic crisis is a clue of a possible volcanogenic fluorine contamination. On the other way, the simulation of the digestion process on solid volcanogenic particulate ingested with drinking water highlighted a potential dramatic increase (orders of magnitudes) of dangerous element concentrations in stomach fluids above their MACs. Despite the evidence of potential health risks induced by volcanic activity, no anamnesic evidence of related pathologies has been found among Stromboli population. This apparent discrepancy is solved taking into account the positive feedback among the good practice in maintaining clean conditions in the harvested waters and the prevalent fallout of volcanogenic ashes away from the main inhabited areas, favoured by the morphological setting of the island and its wind regime.

Structure of an active volcano associated with a resurgent block inferred from thermal mapping: The Yasur–Yenkahe volcanic complex (Vanuatu)

Subsurface thermal measurements provide a valuable tool to map hydrothermal-fluid release zones in active volcanic areas. On the Yasur–Yenkahe volcanic complex (Tanna Island, Vanuatu archipelago), fumaroles and hot springs abound, signs of upraising heat fluxes associated to a well-developed hydrothermal activity. Combination of high resolution mapping of ground thermal anomalies with geomorphological analysis allows the characterization of the structural relationships between the active Yasur volcano and the Yenkahe resurgent block.A complex system of heat release and hydrothermal fluid circulation below the Yasur–Yenkahe complex is evidenced. Circulation, though propagating vertically as a whole, is funneled by stratification. Thus, the main thermal fluid released is almost exclusively concentrated along structural limits that break the seals induced by the stratified nature of the ground. Three types of medium/high temperature anomalies have been evidenced: (1) broad hydrothermalized areas linked with planar stratification that favor lateral spreading, (2) linear segments that represent active faults, and (3) arcuate segments related to paleo-crater rims. The limit between the Yasur volcano and the Yenkahe resurgent block is characterized by an active fault system accommodating both the rapid uplift of the Yenkahe block and the overloading induced by the volcano weight. In such a setting, faults converge below the cone of Yasur, which acts as a focus for the faults. Evidence of such structures, sometimes hidden in the landscape but detected by thermal measurements, is critical for risk assessment of flank landslides.

A Seismic Array in the Town of Pozzuoli in Campi Flegrei (Italy)

Research Article| January 01, 2012 A Seismic Array in the Town of Pozzuoli in Campi Flegrei (Italy) Mario La Rocca; Mario La Rocca Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Danilo Galluzzo Danilo Galluzzo Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Seismological Research Letters (2012) 83 (1): 86–96. https://doi.org/10.1785/gssrl.83.1.86 Article history first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Mario La Rocca, Danilo Galluzzo; A Seismic Array in the Town of Pozzuoli in Campi Flegrei (Italy). Seismological Research Letters 2012;; 83 (1): 86–96. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/gssrl.83.1.86 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietySeismological Research Letters Search Advanced Search Many active volcanic areas in the world are densely inhabited. Large towns are built at the foot of volcanoes, or inside volcanic fields, resulting in a very high volcanic hazard due to the combination of high volcanic risk and a large population. Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, and Etna (Italy); Marapi (Indonesia); Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands); Guagua Pichincha (Ecuador); Popocatepetl (Mexico); Aso, Sakurajima, and Unzen (Japan); and Mayon and Pinatubo (Philippines) are only a few of the active volcanoes sited in densely populated areas. Monitoring these volcanoes with modern technology is critical to mitigating volcanic hazard through the detection of any possible... You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

P wave attenuation structure beneath the Kanto district and surrounding area, Japan

Spectral ratios of teleseismic P waves for 15 deep (>200 km) earthquakes recorded at 146 High-Sensitivity Seismographic Network stations in the Kanto district and its surrounding area, eastern Japan, were inverted for attenuation parameter \( t_P^{ * } \). The dataset consisted of good-quality vertical-component seismograms, whose P phases were handpicked. The P wave spectral ratios with high signal-to-noise ratios were calculated up to 1 Hz for all the station pairs, linear regressed, and then inverted for \( t_P^{ * } \) using the technique of least squares . The result showed that the active volcanic areas were clearly characterized by high \( t_P^{ * } \). In contrast, \( t_P^{ * } \) varied in the nonvolcanic areas. The present result on the \( t_P^{ * } \) distribution was roughly consistent with the shallow part (<30 km) of an attenuation structure, which has been previously obtained based on 3-D tomography by using records of high-frequency (around 5 Hz) P waves from local earthquakes. This suggested that the present method of \( t_P^{ * } \) estimation is valid. The advantage and possible application to other areas were also discussed.

Slope instability induced by volcano-tectonics as an additional source of hazard in active volcanic areas: the case of Ischia island (Italy)

Ischia is an active volcanic island in the Gulf of Naples whose history has been dominated by a caldera-forming eruption (ca. 55 ka) and resurgence phenomena that have affected the caldera floor and generated a net uplift of about 900 m since 33 ka. The results of new geomorphological, stratigraphical and textural investigations of the products of gravitational movements triggered by volcano-tectonic events have been combined with the information arising from a reinterpretation of historical chronicles on natural phenomena such as earthquakes, ground deformation, gravitational movements and volcanic eruptions. The combined interpretation of all these data shows that gravitational movements, coeval to volcanic activity and uplift events related to the long-lasting resurgence, have affected the highly fractured marginal portions of the most uplifted Mt. Epomeo blocks. Such movements, mostly occurring since 3 ka, include debris avalanches; large debris flows (lahars); smaller mass movements (rock falls, slumps, debris and rock slides, and small debris flows); and deep-seated gravitational slope deformation. The occurrence of submarine deposits linked with subaerial deposits of the most voluminous mass movements clearly shows that the debris avalanches impacted on the sea. The obtained results corroborate the hypothesis that the behaviour of the Ischia volcano is based on an intimate interplay among magmatism, resurgence dynamics, fault generation, seismicity, slope oversteepening and instability, and eruptions. They also highlight that volcano-tectonically triggered mass movements are a potentially hazardous phenomena that have to be taken into account in any attempt to assess volcanic and related hazards at Ischia. Furthermore, the largest mass movements could also flow into the sea, generating tsunami waves that could impact on the island’s coast as well as on the neighbouring and densely inhabited coast of the Neapolitan area.

Using a variance-based sensitivity analysis for analyzing the relation between measurements and unknown parameters of a physical model

Abstract. An implementation of uncertainty analysis (UA) and quantitative global sensitivity analysis (SA) is applied to the non-linear inversion of gravity changes and three-dimensional displacement data which were measured in and active volcanic area. A didactic example is included to illustrate the computational procedure. The main emphasis is placed on the problem of extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test (E-FAST). This method produces the total sensitivity indices (TSIs), so that all interactions between the unknown input parameters are taken into account. The possible correlations between the output an the input parameters can be evaluated by uncertainty analysis. Uncertainty analysis results indicate the general fit between the physical model and the measurements. Results of the sensitivity analysis show quite different sensitivities for the measured changes as they relate to the unknown parameters of a physical model for an elastic-gravitational source. Assuming a fixed number of executions, thirty different seeds are observed to determine the stability of this method.

Characteristics of PmP phases from earthquakes and their role in crustal tomography: An active volcanic area example, northeastern Japan

Later earthquake-sourced PmP phases have the potential to significantly improve ray coverage and resolution of crustal tomography methods, as their trajectories are quite different from those of shallower P phases. This paper analyzes the characteristics of later PmP arrival times from earthquakes with different focal depths. The results show that PmP arrival time differences from earthquakes at a range of focal depths are gradually lowered with increasing offset. We found that where the first recorded P-wave phase was the intra-crustal refraction phase (Pg), the differences in arrival time between Pg and PmP phases decreased with increasing focal depth at an offset of less than 120 km. Where the first P-wave phase is the upper mantle refraction phase (Pn), the difference in arrival times between Pn and PmP phases became larger with an increase in focal depth at an offset of more than 150 km. A total of 394 PmP phases and 3356 first P phases were picked from seismograms in the active volcanic area of northeastern Japan, according to the characteristics of calculated arrival times, amplitudes and particle motions. These were used to investigate the role of PmP phases in crustal tomography beneath an active volcanic region. Results of the detailed resolution analysis show that the addition of PmP data can improve significantly the resolution of the lower crustal structure in tomographic images. After the PmP data were included in the tomographic inversion, the path of upwelling magma, along which a series of low-frequency microearthquakes is clearly distributed, was better imaged. These results suggest that the PmP phase has an important role in detailed crustal tomography.

Mercury in an ultraoligotrophic North Patagonian Andean lake (Argentina): Concentration patterns in different components of the water column

The deep, ultraoligotrophic piedmont lakes of Northern Patagonia (Argentina) are located in pristine and barely impacted areas, along a wide latitudinal range. Several studies have reported moderate to high total mercury (Hg) concentrations and contrasting methylmercury (CH 3Hg +) production in different lake compartments. Sources of Hg for western Patagonian terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are still not clear; while point sources can be ruled out and atmospheric deposition is a plausible source, along with contribution from active volcanic areas of the Andes. In this investigation, we reported a noticeably seasonal, spatial (between lake branches), and vertical (between water column strata) heterogeneity in the total Hg concentrations found in the pelagic zone of Lake Moreno. Sterile water samples taken in a depth profile of the lake showed moderate to high concentrations of CH 3Hg + in autumn with a decreasing trend with depth. Our results indicated that Hg is largely allocated in the plankton fraction between 10-53 μm; which dominated within the euphotic (epilimnetic) zone of the lake due to the high densities attained by two species of the dinoflagellate Gymnodinium. The 53-200 μm planktonic size fraction (comprising rotifers, ciliates and immature stages of crustaceans) and the > 200 μm fraction (calanoid copepods and cladocerans) were found to bear strikingly lower total Hg concentrations, suggesting that the magnification of Hg at the planktonic consumer level is negligible.

Characterization of fracture systems using precise array locations of earthquake multiplets: An example at Deception Island volcano, Antarctica

Volcano‐tectonic earthquakes are common seismic events in active volcanic areas. The stress produced by volcanic processes is released through fracturing of the shallow crust. Very often, these earthquakes occur in multiplets with similar waveforms, a fact which indicates common source characteristics. In this work, we introduce a method that uses array techniques to calculate precise relative locations of earthquake multiplets. We use the relative slowness estimate method to determine accurately the apparent slownesses and propagation azimuths of the earthquakes relative to a selected master event. We also obtain precise estimates of the S‐P delays. This information is used to calculate precise relative locations by ray tracing in an Earth model. We applied this method to determine the characteristics of the fractures activated during the 1999 seismic series at the Deception Island volcano, Antarctica. We selected a set of 17 earthquake multiplets, initially located in a small (4 × 4 km) region a few km NE of the array site. We estimated precise locations for 14 of the clusters. In most cases, hypocenters were distributed in well‐defined planar geometries. We found the best fitting planes, which we interpreted as fractures in the medium. For two clusters, the method spatially separated the earthquakes into two subgroups. Thus, we obtained two planes for each of these clusters, resulting in a total of 16 fracture planes. This is the first time that the orientations of fracture planes related to a seismic series have been obtained using a seismic array. We performed several tests to check various aspects in relation to the stability of the method and concluded that the results were robust. The dip angles indicate that the planes are mostly subvertical, while the strike angles clearly show a NW‐SE trend for most of the planes and a few planes with NE–SW trends. The geometry and position of these planes suggest that the 1999 seismic series was influenced by regional tectonics, although the origin of the destabilization of the system may be related to the reactivation of a shallow magma chamber.