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Volcanic plume height is one the most important features of explosive activity; thus, it is a parameter of interest for volcanic monitoring that can be retrieved using different remote sensing techniques. Among them, calibrated visible cameras have demonstrated to be a promising alternative during daylight hours, mainly due to their low cost and low uncertainty in the results. However, currently these measurements are generally not fully automatic. In this paper, we present a new, interactive, open-source MATLAB tool, named 'Plume Height Analyzer' (PHA), which is able to analyze images and videos of explosive eruptions derived from visible cameras, with the objective of automatically identifying the temporal evolution of eruption columns. PHA is a self-customizing tool, i.e., before operational use, the user must perform an iterative calibration procedure based on the analysis of images of previous eruptions of the volcanic system of interest, under different eruptive, atmospheric and illumination conditions. The images used for the calibration step allow the computation of ad hoc expressions to set the model parameters used to recognize the volcanic plume in new images, which are controlled by their individual characteristics. Thereby, the number of frames used in the calibration procedure will control the goodness of the model to analyze new videos/images and the range of eruption, atmospheric, and illumination conditions for which the program will return reliable results. This also allows improvement of the performance of the program as new data become available for the calibration, for which PHA includes ad hoc routines. PHA has been tested on a wide set of videos from recent explosive activity at Mt. Etna, in Italy, and may represent a first approximation toward a real-time analysis of column height using visible cameras on erupting volcanoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fallout of ballistic blocks and bombs ejected from eruptive vents represents a well-known hazard in areas proximal to volcanoes (mostly <5 km from the vent). However, fallout of large clasts sedimenting from plume margins that extend to medial areas and have the potential to produce severe injuries to people and cause damage to infrastructure, is often overlooked. Recent eruptive events at Mount Etna (Italy) provide a clear example where large-clast fallout from plume margins (>5 cm) has posed a real threat both to the many visitors reaching the summit area and to local infrastructure, and, therefore, has been selected as a case study. To quantify this hazard, a new particle sedimentation model was calibrated with field data and then used for probabilistic hazard assessments. For a fully probabilistic scenario the hazard zone covered 72 km 2 and included some 125 km of paths and roads, as well as 15 buildings. Evacuation on foot to a safe area was estimated at almost 4 h, but this could be reduced to less than 3 h if two shelters were provided. Our results show the importance of integrating probabilistic hazard analysis of large-clast fallout within effective strategies of risk management and reduction, especially in the case of volcanoes where visitors can reach the summit areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preceded by 14 days of intense seismic activity, a new eruption started on the south flank of Mt. Etna, Sicily (Italy) early in the morning of 11 March 1669 opening up a series of NS eruptive fissures. The eruption is one of the most destructive flank eruptions of Etna in historical times; it lasted until 11 July, and was characterized by simultaneous explosive and effusive activity during the first three months, while only lava flow output in the last month. The activity built up the large composite cone of the “Monti Rossi” at the lower end of the eruptive fissures, and caused severe damage to the nearby inhabited areas. The prolonged effusive activity generated lava flows for > 15 km, which destroyed several villages and the western part of the town of Catania before reaching the coastline and entering the sea. In this paper, we examine the tephro-stratigraphy of the products of the explosive activity. An in-depth analysis of historical accounts was used to define the chronology of the main eruptive phases (precursors, explosive activity and initial effusive phenomena). The geology of the cone and of the fallout deposits were defined through a field survey over a distance of 5 km from the Monti Rossi. Textural (grain-size, morphological, componentry), density and petrological analyses of tephra samples provided a sedimentological, physical and geochemical characterization of erupted products. Integrating ground and historical data enabled defining the evolution of the cone, identifying and correlating four main cone-forming units. By tracing the dispersal map of the main distal tephra beds (the finer ash being dispersed mainly to the NE as far as Calabria and to the south of Sicily and the 10-cm isopach of the total deposit covering an area up to 53 km 2 ), we estimated a total tephra fallout volume, including the Monti Rossi cone, of about 6.6 × 10 7 m 3 (about 3.2 × 10 7 m 3 DRE). The 1669 event can be considered an archetype of the most hazardous expected eruption on the densely populated flanks of Etna. Reconstructing the eruptive chronology and styles of the 1669 eruption therefore, represents the basic data to assess volcanic hazard from eventual similar flank events in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During explosive eruptions, emergency responders and government agencies need to make fast decisions that should be based on an accurate forecast of tephra dispersal and assessment of the expected impact. Here, we propose a new operational tephra fallout monitoring and forecasting system based on quantitative volcanological observations and modelling. The new system runs at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Etneo (INGV-OE) and is able to provide a reliable hazard assessment to the National Department of Civil Protection (DPC) during explosive eruptions. The new operational system combines data from low-cost calibrated visible cameras and satellite images to estimate the variation of column height with time and model volcanic plume and fallout in near-real-time (NRT). The new system has three main objectives: (i) to determine column height in NRT using multiple sensors (calibrated cameras and satellite images); (ii) to compute isomass and isopleth maps of tephra deposits in NRT; (iii) to help the DPC to best select the eruption scenarios run daily by INGV-OE every three hours. A particular novel feature of the new system is the computation of an isopleth map, which helps to identify the region of sedimentation of large clasts (≥5 cm) that could cause injuries to tourists, hikers, guides, and scientists, as well as damage buildings in the proximity of the summit craters. The proposed system could be easily adapted to other volcano observatories worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]