by Kasey Cunningham

On January 5, 2011, Mt. Etna erupted sending ash in plumes through the air and lava flowing out of Europe's most active volcano.

Just months before the eruption, DTM scientists Selwyn Sacks and Alan Linde installed two borehole strainmeters in Sicily, close to the volcano. The DTM team also included Michael Acierno, Michael Crawford and Brian Schleigh.

Linde reports that both strainmeters on Etna are producing very good signals.

“Each time there is a lava fountain we see clear large coherent changes in the strain data. Because the sites are at different distances from the magma source for these events, we are able to provide constraints on the depth of that source.”

After strainmeter installation, it can take years before the volcanic activity occurs and data is produced. For Etna, this was not the case.

“This is by far the earliest after installation that we have been rewarded with interesting data for tectonic events. Our previous earliest return was about six months after we installed in Montserrat.”

In Italy, is Alessandro Bonaccorso and the Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Volcanolgia Sezione di Catania - Osservatorio Etneo who worked with the DTM team at the volcano site and immediately made contact with Linde after the eruption.

Bonaccorso had two words to describe the strainmeter operation after Etna erupted.

"Wonderful data."

One reason for installing the strainmeters near Mt. Etna, is to find out if there is a functioning magma chamber beneath the surface of the Earth. The data is providing no evidence of a deeper magma chamber, which is causing the DTM scientists to question whether or not it even exists. Linde and Sacks are working to install another strainmeter closer to Etna to further investigate.