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Prior to the 2018 lower East Rift Zone (ERZ) eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, continuous gravimeters operated on the vent rims of ongoing eruptions at both the summit and Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. These instruments captured the onset of the 2018 lower ERZ eruption and the effects of lava withdrawal from both locales, providing constraints on the timing and style of activity and the physical properties of the lava lakes at both locations. At the summit, combining gravity, lava level, and a three-dimensional model of the vent indicates that the upper ∼200 m of the lava lake had a density of about 1700 kg m−3, slightly greater than estimates from 2011–2015 and possibly indicating a gradual densification over time. At Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, gravity and vent geometry were used to model both the density and the rate of crater collapse, which was unknown owing to a lack of visual observations. Results suggest the withdrawal of at least 11 × 10 6 m3 of lava over the course of two hours, and a material density of 1800–1900 kg m−3. In addition, gravity data at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō captured a transient decrease and increase about an hour prior to crater collapse and that was probably related to a small, short-lived fissure eruption on the west flank of the cone and possibly to dike intrusion beneath Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The fissure was the first event in the subsequent cascade that ultimately led to the extrusion of over 1 km3 of lava from lower ERZ vents, collapse of the summit caldera floor by more than 500 m, and the destruction of over 700 homes and other structures. These results emphasize the importance of continuous gravity in operational monitoring of active volcanoes.

On 5 March 2011, the lava lake within the summit eruptive vent at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, began to drain as magma withdrew to feed a dike intrusion and fissure eruption on the volcanoʼs east rift zone. The draining was monitored by a variety of continuous geological and geophysical measurements, including deformation, thermal and visual imagery, and gravity. Over the first ∼14 hours of the draining, the ground near the eruptive vent subsided by about 0.15 m, gravity dropped by more than 100 μGal, and the lava lake retreated by over 120 m. We used GPS data to correct the gravity signal for the effects of subsurface mass loss and vertical deformation in order to isolate the change in gravity due to draining of the lava lake alone. Using a model of the eruptive vent geometry based on visual observations and the lava level over time determined from thermal camera data, we calculated the best-fit lava density to the observed gravity decrease — to our knowledge, the first geophysical determination of the density of a lava lake anywhere in the world. Our result, 950 ± 300 kg m − 3 , suggests a lava density less than that of water and indicates that Kīlaueaʼs lava lake is gas-rich, which can explain why rockfalls that impact the lake trigger small explosions. Knowledge of such a fundamental material property as density is also critical to investigations of lava-lake convection and degassing and can inform calculations of pressure change in the subsurface magma plumbing system.

We investigate the relationship between changes of the gravity field and the release of the seismic energy at Mt. Etna over a 12-year period (1994–2006), during which the volcano exhibited different eruptive patterns. Over the two sub-periods when intense gravity decreases occur, centered on the upper southeastern sector of the volcano (late-1996 to mid-1999 and late-2000 to mid-2001), the strain release curve displays neat long-term accelerations, with many hypocenters clustered in the volume containing the gravity source. Various evidences suggest that, since 1994 and until the breakout of the 2001 eruption, the eastern flank of Etna remained peripheral to the lines of rise of the magma from the deep storage to the surface. Accordingly, we hypothesize that, rather than being directly associated to the migration of the magma, the joint anomalies we found image phases of higher tensile stress on the upper southeastern sector, associated to increase in the rate of microfracturing along the NNW–SSE fracture zone. Such an increase implies a local density (gravity) decrease, and an increase in the release of seismic energy, thus explaining the correlation we observe. The second period of gravity decrease/strain release increase culminated in the breakout of the 2001 flank eruption, as a pressurized deeper magma accumulation used the inferred zone of increasing microfracturing as a path to the surface. This eruption marks an important modification in the structure of Etna's plumbing system, as also testified by the absence of post-2001 long-term gravity changes and accelerations in the strain release curve and the neat modification of the seismicity and ground deformation patterns. We prove that joint microgravity and seismic studies can allow zones of the medium experiencing an increase in the rate of microfracturing to be identified months to years before a magma batch is conveyed through them to the surface, setting off a lateral eruption.

In this paper we discuss the data collected by a large aperture array of broadband seismometers and a continuously recording gravity station during the 2002–2003 eruption of Etna volcano (Italy). Seismic signals recorded during the eruption are dominated by volcanic tremor whose energy spans the 0.5–5 Hz frequency band. On three different occasions (12 November, 19–20 November and 8–9 December 2002), we observed marked increases of the tremor amplitude (up to a factor of 4), which occurred simultaneously with gravity decreases (up to 30 μGal). The three concurrent gravity/tremor anomalies last 6 to 12 hours and terminate with rapid (up to 2 hours) changes, after which the signals return back to their original levels. Based on volcanological observations encompassing the simultaneous anomalies, we infer that the accumulation of a gas cloud at some level in the conduit plexus feeding a new eruptive vent could have acted as a joint source. This study highlights the potential of joint gravity–seismological analyses to both investigate the internal dynamic of a volcano and to improve the confidence of volcanic hazard assessment.