Friday, May 20, 2016

Science & Technology: Project on Relationships Between Tectonics and Volcanic Systems

Understanding Volcanic Eruptions Where Plates Meet (EOS)

The new V3 Project elucidates the relationships between tectonics and volcanic systems and how they influence hazards on Italy's Mount Etna and Vulcano and Lipari islands.


Mount Etna and the Aeolian Islands in southern Italy represent ideal natural laboratories to study how magma and tectonics interact in active volcanic zones and their associated hazards. The geodynamic context of both areas is characterized by a tectonic compression running north and south, related to the convergence of the African and Eurasian plates in the central Mediterranean (see above). This compression creates a cluster of volcanoes, some of the most active in Europe.