Science & Technology: Using GPS Buoys to Monitor Submerged Volcanic Regions

Visualizing One of the Most Hazardous Formations in Nature (EOS)

A network of buoys provides a first glimpse of the seafloor beneath a volatile Italian caldera.

Iannaccone et al. used data collected by Multiparametric Elastic-beacon Devices and Underwater Sensors Acquisition (MEDUSA) system to generate the first image of seafloor deformation patterns in the Gulf of Pozzuoli portion of the Campi Flegrei caldera. The team found that from April to June 2016, some sections of the seafloor were uplifted by approximately 4.2 centimeters.

The researchers also compared these GPS seafloor data, transmitted from MEDUSA’s four buoys to the Osservatorio Vesuviano monitoring center in Naples, to values projected by a model using only GPS land measurements. Their results matched up, showing that either data collected on land or data from the seafloor can be used to determine the other. They also found that bottom pressure records, or measurements of pressure at the bottom of the ocean, could be used to determine seafloor uplift in shallow water.

Not only did the team provide the first image of seafloor deformation patterns beneath Campi Flegrei, a critical caldera, but their study is also a good example of how GPS buoys can be used to monitor submerged volcanic regions in general. It also shows the potential to use bottom pressure records as a cost-effective, high-resolution mode of monitoring shallow waters.

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Measurement of Seafloor Deformation in the Marine Sector of the Campi Flegrei Caldera (Italy), by Giovanni Iannaccone et al. First published: Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 1 December 2017,  https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014852

(Thanks to GRC Member Marcelo Lippmann, Staff Scientist (retired) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the submission.)