Monitoring volcanic activity with fibre-optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing – 
first experiments at the Etna volcano

Contrafatto, Danilo; Currenti, Gilda; Jousset, P.; Larocca, Graziano; Messina, Alfio; Pellegrino, Daniele; Pulvirenti , Mario; Rapisarda, Salvatore; Zuccarello, Luciano; Chalari, Athena; Krawczyk, C.M.

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Monitoring volcanic activity with fibre-optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing – first experiments at the Etna volcano

Authors

Contrafatto, Danilo
External Organizations;

Currenti, Gilda
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/pjousset

Jousset, P.
2.7 Near-surface Geophysics, 2.0 Geophysics, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Larocca, Graziano
External Organizations;

Messina, Alfio
External Organizations;

Pellegrino, Daniele
External Organizations;

Pulvirenti , Mario
External Organizations;

Rapisarda, Salvatore
External Organizations;

Zuccarello, Luciano
External Organizations;

Chalari, Athena
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/lotte

Krawczyk, C.M.
2.7 Near-surface Geophysics, 2.0 Geophysics, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

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https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-13088-1.pdf
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Citation

Contrafatto, D., Currenti, G., Jousset, P., Larocca, G., Messina, A., Pellegrino, D., Pulvirenti, M., Rapisarda, S., Zuccarello, L., Chalari, A., Krawczyk, C. (2019): Monitoring volcanic activity with fibre-optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing – first experiments at the Etna volcano, (Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 21, EGU2019-13088-1), General Assembly European Geosciences Union (Vienna 2019).

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5002591

Abstract

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology has been for the first time tested as a new tool for monitoringvolcanic activity. We installed an “intelligent” Distributed Acoustic Sensing (iDAS) interrogator, based on RayleighOptical Time-Domain Reflectometry (OTDR), inside the Observatory Pizzi Deneri to record strain rate signalsalong a 1.3 km-long fibre optic cable deployed in the Etna summit area. The iDAS system recorded the strain rateinduced by volcanic sources with 2 m spatial resolution at a sampling frequency of 1 kHz. The cable is radiallyoriented with respect to the summit craters. The main objective of the experiment was to test the capability ofthe DAS technology to contribute to the monitoring of Etna volcano. To validate the iDAS signal we collocatedalong the fibre cable a multi-parametric array composed of: 15 three-component geophones, 5 seismic broadbandsensors, and 2 arrays of three infrasonic sensors. The system was in acquisition from 29 August to 16 September2018, when volcano Etna activity was mainly characterized by moderate but frequent explosive activity from theNSEC (New South East Crater) and the NEC (North East Crater), the latter being very near to the installation site(1.8 km distant). Volcanic events such as explosions from the summit craters were recognized in the iDAS signal.Our preliminary observations suggests that DAS technology can record volcano-related strain rate signals withunprecedented spatial and temporal scales, which may have an important impact on the understanding of volcanicprocesses.