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The knowledge of the crustal stress field is crucial for understanding the seismic activity in an area that, in turn, requires an in-depth knowledge on the dynamics of the crust. To that end, the reconstruction of focal mechanisms of earthquakes as reliable as possible is a preliminary and basic requirement to infer proper source mechanisms. Currently, the fault plane solution method, using P-wave polarities, is still frequently used. Anyway, manually determining the polarities of P-waves is time-consuming and susceptible to human error. These issues can be solved by automated processes thorough the application of machine learning techniques.In our study, the Convolutional First Motion (CFM) network, a Deep Convolutional Neural Network, is presented. It is utilized to categorize seismic traces based on the polarity of the P-waves' first motions. We used waveforms from two datasets: the Italian seismic catalogue INSTANCE and waveforms from earthquakes that occurred in the Mount Pollino region of Italy between 2010 and 2014.We developed a method based on Principal Component Analysis and Self-Organising Maps, which enabled a clustering process to identify sets of appropriate traces. The network was trained using 130·000 time windows centered on P-wave arrival times relative to waveforms in the INSTANCE catalogueThe network achieved accuracies of 95.7% and 98.9% on two test sets that were generated using the datasets for Mt. Pollino and a portion of the INSTANCE catalogue, respectively.This work has been partially supported by PRIN-2017 MATISSE project, No 20177EPPN2, funded by Italian Ministry of Education and Research., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

The Calabria-Lucania border region represents the transitional area between the Southern Apennines and the Northern sector of the Calabrian arc. Roughly the whole Apennine chain is struck by more or less intense earthquakes. While the northern and central parts of the chain are characterized by foreland contraction and hinterland extension, the Southern Apennine is characterized by a strike-slip kinematics in the eastern sector and by an extensional regime in the western sector. Strike-slip earthquakes have been observed also in the axial part of the Campania-Molise Apennines, rightly beneath the active extensional sector.The Calabria-Lucania border region is considered a seismic gap in the Apennine chain; few paleo-earthquakes, with magnitude ranging from 5 to 7, have been recorded in the area. During 2010-2014 the region was affected by a low-moderate instrumental seismicity (known as Pollino seismic sequence): thousands of earthquakes occurred. Analysis of that seismicity revealed a shallow hypocentral distribution located into the first few km below the surface, and focal mechanisms of the strongest events of the sequence are consistent with upper crustal extensional deformation. While the shallow seismicity of Calabria-Lucania border region has been deeply studied after the 2010-2013 sequence, the sporadic deep seismicity needs a more detailed analysis.As highlighted by previous studies, instrumental seismicity recorded from 2013 to 2015 reveals the presence of a sporadic deep (from 9 to more than 20 km) seismicity. The events located between 9 and 17 km deep have transcurrent to transpressional kinematics with NE-SW trending P axes; while deeper events show a strike-slip kinematics with NW-SE trending P axes.We analyzed deep (> 10 km) seismicity recorded in the area from 2013 to nowadays. Starting from the picking of seismograms of more than 40 events (with M between 2.4 and 3.8), we analyzed the focal mechanisms of events computed using at least six good first motion observations. According to Ferranti et al., 2017, our results highlight the presence of a strike-slip/oblique kinematics at depths of more than 20 km. Between 10 and 20 km depth both dip-slip and strike-slip kinematics are present, with a predominance of the last ones, confirming the presence of a transition zone. Finally, we inverted the focal mechanisms dataset to infer about the stress field active in the region.

This work is devoted to the study of both earthquakes and background seismic noise at Ischia Island (Italy) recorded pre and post the Md 4.0 earthquake occurred on 21 August 2017 (18:57 UTC). We compare and characterize noise and earthquakes in terms of Independent Component Analysis, energy and polarization properties. The earthquakes' waveforms and the background noise are decomposed into a few independent components with two main common signals peaked around 1–2 and 3–4 Hz, respectively. A slight increase of the energy of the background seismic noise is observed comparing samples recorded in 2016 and 2017, whereas no variations are detected in 2017 pre and post the main earthquake. The polarization analysis, performed in the frequency bands individuated by Independent Component Analysis and applied to the background seismic noise, indicates a shallow propagation and the azimuthal pattern is mainly controlled by the local structural features. These results suggest that noise and earthquakes are ascribable to a common phenomenon of fluid-solid interaction in the hydrothermal system of Ischia Island.

We analyse tiltmeter time series recorded from April 2015 to March 2019 at three borehole instruments installed at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy). We evaluate the crustal response in terms of ground tilting to external excitations of medium/long-period tidal constituents by applying a polarization analysis. The azimuths of the tilt vectors show well-defined polarization directions and the ground tilting planes oscillate with the periodicity of the corresponding tidal constituents. For two of the three tiltmeters, the average ground oscillation pattern related to the monthly Mm and fortnightly Mf constituents show seasonal variations, which can be ascribed to rainfall-induced tilting. In addition, for the same two instruments, a clear seasonal amplitude modulation of the diurnal S1 constituent appears in the time series, revealing the occurrence of site thermoelastic effects. The results indicate that the tidal tilting is mainly controlled by the local stress field distribution and rheology; in addition, seasonal exogenous factors like rainfalls play a role in modulating the ground deformation.

This paper is devoted to the analyses of sound-scape at fontana di Trevi in Rome (Italy) with the aim to compare its characteristics during the Italian lockdown due to the (Sars-COV2) Covid-19 sanitary emergency and its characteristics before and after such time. The lockdown has represented an exceptional environment due to the silence everywhere, never occurred in centuries, offering the opportunity to recognize the “signature” of the sound emitted by the famous Fontana di Trevi and recognize how it interacts with other features. The signature is important for preservation issues and cultural heritage. The soundscape was documented in a field survey by means of hand held microphones, which acquired simultaneously the acoustic wavefield all around the fountain. We find that the spectral content depends on the microphone location, revealing a very complex wavefield, showing strong amplitudes during the lockdown well below 1kHz and a frequency band extending up to 10kHz. In a time period far from the lockdown, we evidence an additional frequency band around 700-1kHz, which not simply adds to the previous spectrum, but acts as a synchronization mechanism. The important observation is that the Covid-19 silence let emerge sounds that had been there for centuries, and afforded us the possibility to document them in order to study objectively a “soundprint”. Moreover, we studied the spatialization characteristics of the soundfield.

In the last decades, thermal infrared ground-based cameras have become effective tools to detect significant spatio-temporal anomalies in the hydrothermal/volcanic environment, possibly linked to impending eruptions. In this paper, we analyzed the temperature time-series recorded by the ground-based Thermal Infrared Radiometer permanent network of INGV-OV, installed inside the Solfatara-Pisciarelli area, the most active fluid emission zones of the Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy). We investigated the temperatures’ behavior in the interval 25 June 2016–29 May 2020, with the aim of tracking possible endogenous hydrothermal/volcanic sources. We performed the Independent Component Analysis, the time evolution estimation of the spectral power, the cross-correlation and the Changing Points’ detection. We compared the obtained patterns with the behavior of atmospheric temperature and pressure, of the time-series recorded by the thermal camera of Mt. Vesuvius, of the local seismicity moment rate and of the CO2 emission flux. We found an overall influence of exogenous, large scale atmospheric effect, which dominated in 2016–2017. Starting from 2018, a clear endogenous forcing overcame the atmospheric factor, and dominated strongly soil temperature variations until the end of the observations. This paper highlights the importance of monitoring and investigating the soil temperature in volcanic environments, as well as the atmospheric parameters.

Volcanic dynamics is driven by the complex interplay between fluid flow (circulation of magmatic and/or hydrothermal fluids) and rock structure (volcano conduits, dykes), the comprehension of which requires both multi-parametric monitoring and modelling of relevant physical and chemical processes of the system. Understanding the factors controlling the dynamics of the processes involved in these interactions is necessary to characterize the overall behaviour of a volcano and the eventual transition mechanisms among stationarity, unrest phases and eruptive styles. The starting point in this context is to have high-quality data of several parameters (seismological, geochemical, geodetic, volcanological), acquired both over years of monitoring activity and focused field experiments. Fundamental contributions come from the use of combined multi-parametric datasets and the adoption of innovative analysis techniques and multi-disciplinary approaches. This Special Issue is addressed to those researchers, who focus their investigations in the field of volcano dynamics. Its main purpose is to shed light on the processes occurring in active volcanic systems over different time scales, with relevant implications for the hazards and the modern monitoring, thus promoting future discussions on this topic. The Issue contains this introducing preface, which describes the Volume aims, and 14 papers, reflecting the main themes. The papers are devoted to the study of some Italian sites, but the proposed approaches are general and therefore applicable to any other volcanic/hydrothermal areas.

In this paper, we analyse the seismic noise at Ischia Island (Italy) with the objective of detecting the hydrothermal source signals taking advantage of the Covid-19 quiescence due to lockdown (strong reduction of anthropogenic noise). We compare the characteristics of the background noise in pre-, during and post-lockdown in terms of spectral content, energy release (RMS) and statistical moments. The continuous noise is decomposed into two independent signals in the 1−2 Hz and 2−4 Hz frequency bands, becoming sharpened around 1 Hz and 3 Hz respectively in lockdown. We propose a conceptual model according to which a dendritic system of fluid-permeated fractures plays as neighbour closed organ pipes, for which the fundamental mode provides the persistent whisper and the first higher mode is activated in concomitance with energy increases. By assuming reasonable values for the sound speed in low vapor–liquid mass fraction for a two-phase fluid and considering temperatures and pressures of the shallow aquifer fed by sea, meteoric and deep hydrothermal fluids, we estimate pipe lengths in the range 200–300 m. In this scheme, Ischia organ-like system can play both continuous whisper and transients, depending on the energy variations sourced by pressure fluctuations in the hydrothermal fluids.

We study oscillations recorded at Stromboli and Campi Flegrei by different sensors: seismometers, strainmeters and tiltmeters. We examine both the high-frequency (>0.5 Hz) portion of the spectrum and very long period signals up to tidal scales. In this context, seismicity and deformation are investigated on different time scales (from minutes to days/years) in order to identify the basic elements of their interaction, whose understanding should provide new insights on the predictive models. In this work, the strict relation of tides and volcanic processes is shown. At Stromboli, indeed the transition from the stationary phase to the non-stationary phase seems to have a tidal precursor that is related to the duration of the crisis. The subsequent volcanic activity is interpreted as the response of the volcano to restore the equilibrium condition. The moveout from equilibrium produces, first, variations in the standard statistics of explosions, then leads to effusive stage and to a pressure drop in the shallow feeding system. That process induces the nucleation of a gas bubble and the excitation of low frequencies. Campi Flegrei seismicity shows a correlation between the diurnal solar solid tide and the energy released by the long period signals, indicating that the whole mechanism is modulated on a tidal scale. In other words, in the case of Stromboli, a departure from the equilibrium state is marked by solid tide variations in a certain frequency band. On the other hand, at Campi Flegrei diurnal to annual solid tides modulate an increase of volcanic activity.

This work is devoted to the analysis of seismic signals continuously recorded at Campi Flegrei Caldera (Italy) during the entire year 2006. The radiation pattern associated with the Long-Period energy release is investigated. We adopt an innovative Independent Component Analysis algorithm for convolutive seismic series adapted and improved to give automatic procedures for detecting seismic events often buried in the high-level ambient noise. The extracted waveforms characterized by an improved signal-to-noise ratio allows the recognition of Long-Period precursors, evidencing that the seismic activity accompanying the mini-uplift crisis (in 2006), which climaxed in the three days from 26–28 October, had already started at the beginning of the month of October and lasted until mid of November. Hence, a more complete seismic catalog is then provided which can be used to properly quantify the seismic energy release. To better ground our results, we first check the robustness of the method by comparing it with other blind source separation methods based on higher order statistics; secondly, we reconstruct the radiation patterns of the extracted Long-Period events in order to link the individuated signals directly to the sources. We take advantage from Convolutive Independent Component Analysis that provides basic signals along the three directions of motion so that a direct polarization analysis can be performed with no other filtering procedures. We show that the extracted signals are mainly composed of P waves with radial polarization pointing to the seismic source of the main LP swarm, i.e. a small area in the Solfatara, also in the case of the small-events, that both precede and follow the main activity. From a dynamical point of view, they can be described by two degrees of freedom, indicating a low-level of complexity associated with the vibrations from a superficial hydrothermal system. Our results allow us to move towards a full description of the complexity of the source, which can be used, by means of the small-intensity precursors, for hazard-model development and forecast-model testing, showing an illustrative example of the applicability of the CICA method to regions with low seismicity in high ambient noise.

This work is devoted to the study of the background seismic noise at Ischia Island. We highlight two persistent independent signals, with dominant frequency peaks in the range 1−2 Hz and 3−4 Hz, respectively. The first signal is the most energetic and persistent and its polarization properties are well defined, revealing a shallow propagation likely controlled by both tectonic/volcanic structures and morphological features. This signal is well correlated at all the stations in the Casamicciola area and its group velocity is estimated as 500−600 m/s. The second signal shows similar polarization properties but the temporal pattern of its amplitude is strongly affected by anthropogenic noise, revealing a modulation on a diurnal scale. On the investigated spatial scales, any clearly correlated signal is not evidenced. We interpret the 1−2 Hz correlated wave-packets as the persistent whisper of the shallow circulation of fluids, which are a mixing of sea and meteoric water and thermal fluids of the hydrothermal reservoir. In the conceptual scheme of the self-sustained musical instruments, we hypothesize that the solid structure of the shallow hydrothermal system of Ischia is formed by a network of channels, continuously excited by the circulating hydrothermal fluids, which produce a whispered sound (i.e. the seismic noise). This mechanism is able to produce persistent self-sustained oscillations that we observe as the 1−2 Hz seismic signal and, eventually, higher modes.

We analyze seismic signals produced by explosion-quakes at Stromboli Volcano. We use standard nonlinear procedures to search a low-order effective dynam-ics. The dimension of the reconstructed phase space depends on the number of samples. Namely larger time lengths cor-respond to dynamical systems of different complexity. If we restrict the analysis to the signal associated directly to the source (Chouet et al., 1997), we obtain a phase space dimen-sion equal to two. We reproduce this part of the signal with a simple single self-sustained oscillator.

This work presents specific applications of techniques based on the Independent Component Analysis to the seismicity recorded at Campi Flegrei caldera. We show the capability of that technique in discriminating different kinds of signals and extracting high-quality waveforms from a noisy background. The approach is suitable for real time implementation in monitoring practice. Moreover, the results provided by these methodologies can be used to improve the knowledge of the volcano dynamics.

We analyze the sea-level oscillations at eight mareographic stations of the ISPRA network located in the Venetian lagoon considering four years from 2008 to 2011. The aim is to study the acqua alta phenomenon (i.e. the average increase in flooding levels higher than 79 cm), on different time scales by using a nonlinear method (Independent Component Analysis). We show that it is possible to extract from the water-level oscillations, on the time scale of the year, a long period component, which has a high correlation with the wind recordings ( > 0.8 ). Three tidal constituents are extracted by ICA including astronomical and meteorological effects. In particular, a long period component, peaked at two months, is ascribed to the wind effect on synoptic scale; indeed it shows a high correlation with the wind stress signal. According to the ICA model, that component is linearly superimposed on the extracted astronomical tides. These results allow us to estimate the tide super-elevation due to the wind stress at each station and so to improve the forecasting model of acqua alta, e.g., by introducing the proper wind effect correction at each station.

A novel procedure is proposed to analyse continuous seismic signal on hourly scales to have a prompt discrimination among the different sources. Specifically, this approach is applied to a massive dataset recorded at Campi Flegrei caldera during the year 2006 when a swarm of volcano-tectonic earthquakes occurred. The convolutive independent component analysis is adopted to obtain a clear separation among meteo-marine microseism, anthropogenic noise, hydrothermal tremor in the absence of volcano-tectonic activity, whereas in non-stationary conditions a contribution connected to the corner frequency of the earthquakes emerges. A coarse-grained variable to be monitored continuously is introduced, i.e. the frequency associated with the maximum amplitude of the power spectral density of the deconvolutive independent components. That parameter is sensitive to the variation in the frequency bands of interest (e.g. that corresponding to the corner frequencies of volcano-tectonic events) and can be used as marker of the insurgence of seismic activity.

In the present paper, we analyse ground tilt and seismicity at Campi Flegrei caldera and Ischia Island, two volcanic areas located in the south of Italy. These areas have been well studied for many years from a petrological, volcanological and geophysical view point. Moreover, due to the high seismic and volcanic risk for the populations living there, they are continuously monitored by networks of geophysical and geochemical sensors. We summarize the most important results that we obtained so far, concerning the observations of relationships between seismic activity and ground tilt anomalies, focusing on the time interval 2015&ndash, 2018. First, we present a detailed description of the tiltmeter and seismic networks in both the investigated areas, as well as their development and improvement over time that has enabled high quality data collection. From the joint analysis of the seismic and borehole tiltmeter signals, we often notice concurrence between tilt pattern variations and the occurrence of seismicity. Moreover, the major tilt anomalies appear to be linked with the rate and energy of volcano-tectonic earthquakes, as well as with exogenous phenomena like solid Earth tides and hydrological cycles. The analysis that we present has potential applicability to other volcanic systems. Our findings show how the joint use tilt and seismic data can contribute to better understanding of the dynamics of volcanoes.

[1] Long continuous seismic data recorded at five broadband seismic stations during 2006 at Campi Flegrei caldera have been analyzed. Introducing a coarse-grained method, we evaluate the time evolution of amplitude and polarization of the seismic noise in the frequency band common to long-period events. The series are modulated on tidal time scales: the root-mean square is basically dominated by solar contribution, while the azimuth of the polarization vector shows lunar diurnal and semidiurnal constituents. In addition, we find that in the frequency band common to long-period events the azimuths are polarized toward a specific area, suggesting that these persistent oscillations can be induced by the activity of the shallow geothermal reservoir.

In the present work a new approach for the analysis of polarization of seismic signals is proposed. The method is based on Independent Component Analysis and allows the identification and separation of the basic sources, which are naturally polarized into the vertical and horizontal planes. The results from the case study of a swarm of volcano-tectonic earthquakes occurred at Campi Flegrei in October 2015 are impressive: a clear separation of the P- and S-wave seismic phases in the time domain is obtained. In addition, the efficiency of the method in retrieving the polarization parameters is demonstrated by the comparison with other standard techniques. The presented approach provides wavefield decomposition and polarization analysis in a single step, thus avoiding a priori cumbersome filtering procedures and segmentation of the signals. It is useful for discriminating and analysing different seismic phases and can be applied to a variety of volcanic and tectonic signals, therefore it can strongly support all the studies on propagation and source mechanism. Moreover, due to its fastness and robustness this stand-alone tool can be routinely used in the volcano monitoring practice.

We study the acoustical and mechanical vibration fields generated when Italian speakers emit Italian vowels in order to individuate the role played by the trachea in the speech production mechanism. Specifically, experimental series regard the mechanical vibrations along the trachea–larynx tract measured by using non-contact laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV), contemporaneously we acquire the acoustical field by means of a set of microphones. The experimental apparatus consists of two LDV systems and two microphones: this allows to have synchronized recorded signals to be compared, thus to get information about the vibration field propagation. The two lasers are pointed along the thorax scanning along the tracheal tract. We observe that the trachea displays significant self-oscillations that cannot be avoided in the speech production. In particular, a clear self-oscillation at the frequency related to the pitch is extracted by independent component analysis. Thanks to the two synchronized LDV systems, we observe that the mechanical oscillations at the trachea start before those of the larynx and the acoustic oscillations, indicating that a mechanical oscillation is upward propagating. These experiments support the hypothesis that a further hydrodynamic instability should be advocated in the speech production mechanism at trachea level. Moreover, the pitch, typically extracted by looking at the inter-times in the acoustical signals, is directly obtained by measuring the mechanical vibrations of the trachea.

The source properties of the Long-Period events that occurred at Campi Flegrei Caldera (Italy) during the 2004–2006 ground uplift episode are investigated by analyzing the temporal release of seismic energy, amplitude distribution and inter-event occurrence time. Moreover, an entropy-based decomposition method is applied to identify the simpler waveforms thought to be representative of the source mechanism of Long-Period events. On the basis of the outcomes, we propose that the main part of these events is the result of a source process triggered by a mechanism of fluid charge/discharge, which causes pressure drop in a main branch of a dentritic network of the hydrothermal system. In this model, the rate of the Poissonian process (about 15 min), which drives the occurrence of the Long-Period events, provides the average recharge time of the system up to the critical condition. A partial shunting of the fluid flow away from the main conduit activates the ”resonance” of a second branch, spatially separated from the first one. This is a process that occurs whenever the fluid pressure exceeds a critical value and produces less energetic Long-Period events. The mechanism of pressure variation in the two conduits generates signals with preferred amplitude scales, described by a bi-lognormal distribution. From a dynamical point of view, Long-Period events result well described by a low-dimensional dynamical system. Finally, the time pattern of the energy release and its correlation with the diurnal solid earth tide suggest that the whole mechanism of fluid charge/discharge is likely modulated by tidal stress variation.

SUMMARY The characteristics of the Strombolian-like activity at Erebus volcano (Antarctica) are evidenced by decomposing the wavefield of the explosion-quakes associated with the bursting of gas slugs at the surface. The decomposition is achieved by adopting a non-linear technique operating in time domain, that is, independent component analysis. Although the spectral properties and polarization analysis of the recorded signals provide evidence of an overall complex volcanic structure, the decomposed waves indicate well-polarized phases with high rectilinearity. Slightly different directions in azimuth can be individuated compatible with different and close vibrating solid structures like conduits in the summit volcanic plumbing system.

We consider long-time recorded seismic signals of Stromboli volcano to determine the inter-time distribution function of the Strombolian explosion-quakes. We show that it is Poissonian. Hence, the apparently observed periodic recurrence of the explosions is actually described by the constant rate of a Poisson process. Moreover, combining a diffusive model with the experimental inter-time distribution, we can determine the size distributions of the bubbles and infer the observed slug sizes.

We analyze a long time–space series of Stromboli volcanic tremors. A very-low-frequency content in the range of 0.02–0.5 Hz has been found by using spectral analysis and independent component analysis. Independent component analysis is an entropy-based technique. We observe the occurrence of a component having a period of 30 sec. Polarization analysis shows that the wave field comes mainly from the crater area, well evidenced by seismometers located around the summit ring, whereas the radiation becomes increasingly scattered at stations located around the base of this volcano. Based on its apparent velocity, the 30-sec component appears to be a slow wave, related to inhomogeneities of the source and/or gas-pressure fluctuations inside the shallow plumbing system.

We discuss the cosmology derived by taking into account the Van der Waals equation in order to describe the thermodynamic state of the universe. The approach is more realistic with respect to the usual one where the perfect fluid equation of state is taken into account. The universe can be described as a two-phase fluid where a component can be seen as a sort of large scale structure fluid and another one as a background fluid. Another main result is that we recover an asymptotic critical state which acts as a cosmological constant. In this sense, we recover a sort of quintessential picture where the cosmic fluid undergoes an accelerated behaviour.

Debris flows are among the most hazardous and unpredictable processes whose hazard evaluation requires an understanding of the processes that govern sediment supply, sediment bulking, flow volume, and deposition. In line with this challenge, we estimate the net soil redistribution rates in an area characterized by recurrent instability phenomena using 137Cs as a tracer for monitoring soil dynamics. An extension of this method by applying it to the case of major landslides is addressed. Specifically, surveys of soil 137Cs content at sites in the Pizzo d’Alvano massif (Italy), where a set of particularly damaging landslides occurred on 5–6 May 1998, are reported. Being this region prone to debris flows, two zero-order basins are examined, one of which experienced a landslide event. In that basin deposition is observed, whereas the other shows a net loss of soil. These results appear to be relevant, particularly because the rate of hollow filling could be correlated with the magnitude and/or frequency of debris flow occurrence or with some measure of the hazard presented by individual gullies.

In the present paper, we analyse long-period (LP) events and seismic noise recorded at Campi Flegrei during the uplift episode of 2004–2006. The results of a detailed polarization analysis indicate that the large number of LPs detected during the seismic crisis were accompanied by a sustained activity consisting of very low-energy volcanic signals. These weak volcanic signals, which are usually absent in ambient noise recorded in the studied area, and LP events have similar properties, namely they are radially polarized towards the same LP source. The large dataset analysed allows us to study the statistics of the polarization, leading to the extraction of the average properties of the volcanic signals. An estimate of the complexity of the system can be provided by the degrees of freedom necessary to describe the asymptotic dynamics in a reconstructed phase space. This analysis shows that both LPs and low-energy signals can be described by a low-dimensional dynamical system, while ambient noise unrelated to volcanic activity is higher dimensional. Based on these observations, we interpret the phenomena observed during the seismic crisis in the framework of the theory of self-oscillating systems, in which LPs and low-energy signals represent self-oscillations generated by a persistent hydrothermal source.

We investigate the physical processes that generate the ocean tides, whose understanding has important influence on the marine activities. We analyze historical sea-level oscillations, continuously recorded from six stations in the North Atlantic Ocean spanning a time period of eighty years from 1926. In this paper, an Independent-Component-Analysis?based approach is adopted to obtain a clear identification of the main tidal constituents in term of waveform in time domain from the simultaneously recorded signals. This technique separates at most six nonlinear tidal components which are weakly superimposed. The fundamental objective is to extract information on the degree of complexity of the involved dynamics and on the very long-term tidal constituents. This is particularly significant to understand the response of the ocean to the tidal forcing. We put the emphasis on the near-bidecadal time scale and its influence on the short-periods tides. In details the Moon 18.6 y nodal cycle modulation acts in the ocean in quite an analogous manner to the fortnightly modulation in many shallow seas. Our results give new insights into the evidence for an 18.6 y effect in the climate/ocean variation whose physical mechanism details remain murky.

[1] We propose a novel approach to analyze continuous seismic signal and separate the sources from background noise. A specific application to the seismicity recorded at Campi Flegrei Caldera during the 2006 ground uplift is presented. The fundamental objective is to improve the standard procedures of picking the emergent onset arrivals of the seismic signals, often buried in the high-level ambient noise, in order to obtain an appropriate catalogue for monitoring the activity of this densely populated volcanic area. This is particularly useful in order to estimate the release of the seismic energy and to put constraints on the source dynamics. An Independent Component Analysis based approach for the Blind Source Separation of convolutive mixtures is adopted to obtain a clear separation of Long Period events from the ambient noise. The approach presents good performance and it is suitable for real time implementation in seismic monitoring. Its application to the continuous seismic signal recorded at Campi Flegrei has allowed the extraction of high-quality waveforms, considerably improving the detection of low-energy events.

[1] We analyze the volcano seismicity recorded during the pre- and co-eruptive regimes of the 2007 effusive crisis at Stromboli volcano (Italy). Data-set is composed of the continuous recordings of a three-component broad-band seismometer and of a Sacks-Evertson strainmeter. Starting from the characterization of the non effusive phase as a stationary state of equilibrium, we investigate the effusive phase as a non-equilibrium state. A statistical analysis reveals that the explosion occurrence is always driven by a nearly Poissonian process, as for the standard activity, even during the effusive phase, with the only difference in shortening the inter-times. Explosion-quake amplitudes are lognormally distributed until the effusive phase, becoming then broader. This indicates that many scales are involved. A slightly different process can be advocated for the swarms of the explosions occurring during the effusive phase. This suggests that the dynamics of the exsolution and/or aggregation of the gas slugs should differ from the nucleation mechanism responsible of the standard Strombolian activity. The pre-eruptive regime is characterized by a very long deformative signal that appears as a transient oscillating signal with a period of about three days that modulates the explosion amplitudes. In a conceptual vibrating cavities model, it is related to a chocking phenomenon induced by magma injection, which in turn leads to the effusion.

We investigate the physical processes associated with volcanic tremor and explosions. A volcano is a complex system where a fluid source interacts with the solid edifice so generating seismic waves in a regime of low turbulence. Although the complex behavior escapes a simple universal description, the phases of activity generate stable (self-sustained) oscillations that can be described as a non-linear dynamical system of low dimensionality. So, the system requires to be investigated with non-linear methods able to individuate, decompose, and extract the main characteristics of the phenomenon. Independent Component Analysis (ICA), an entropy-based technique is a good candidate for this purpose. Here, we review the results of ICA applied to seismic signals acquired in some volcanic areas. We emphasize analogies and differences among the self-oscillations individuated in three cases: Stromboli (Italy), Erebus (Antarctica) and Volcán de Colima (Mexico). The waveforms of the extracted independent components are specific for each volcano, whereas the similarity can be ascribed to a very general common source mechanism involving the interaction between gas/magma flow and solid structures (the volcanic edifice). Indeed, chocking phenomena or inhomogeneities in the volcanic cavity can play the same role in generating self-oscillations as the languid and the reed do in musical instruments. The understanding of these background oscillations is relevant not only for explaining the volcanic source process and to make a forecast into the future, but sheds light on the physics of complex systems developing low turbulence.

Aim of this work is to analyze and to synthesize acoustic signals emitted by organ pipes. An Independent Component Analysis technique is applied to study the behavior of single notes or chords obtained in real and simulated environments. These analyses suggest that the pipe acoustic signals can be described by a mixture of nonlinear oscillations obtained by a self-sustained feedback system (i.e., Andronov oscillator). This system allows to obtain a realistic pipe waveform with features very similar to the sound produced by the pipe and to propose an additive synthesis model. Moreover, suitable analogical and integrate circuit models, able to reproduce the registered waveforms and sound, have been designed. A comparison between real and reconstructed acoustic signals is provided.

We analyze tide gauge records at four stations of the ISPRA network located in the Adriatic Sea basin (Eastern Italy), namely, going from North to South: Trieste, Ancona, Ortona and Otranto. We use linear and nonlinear methods in the frequency and time domains, including spectral and Independent Component Analysis (ICA), inter-times occurrence, and phase space embedding dimension evaluation. We show that four tidal constituents can be extracted by ICA and interpreted as coherent self-sustained oscillations. Finally, we show that these constituents can be reproduced by adopting a simple nonlinear oscillatory model that generalizes classical Andronov oscillator with the inclusion of a time dependent pumping.