Continuous monitoring of soil CO2 flux on Mt. Etna: The 2004–2005 eruption and the role of regional tectonics and volcano tectonics

The soil CO2 flux on Mt. Etna as recorded by the ETNAGAS network (an automatic system for measuring soil CO2 flux and meteorological parameters) started to increase strongly about 5 months prior to the onset of the 2004–2005 eruption and decreased a few months before the end of the eruption. Time delays in the occurrences of anomalies in soil CO2 flux at different sites in the geochemical network constrain the relationship between soil CO2 flux distributions and the tectonic framework of Etna volcano. The anomalies observed before the 2004–2005 eruption support the intrusion of new undegassed magma into the upper feeding system of the volcano (<20 km below sea level). Magma subsequently rose slowly in the volcano conduits, thereby triggering the onset of the 2004–2005 eruption. The time delays in the occurrences of anomalies in combination with spectral analysis indicate the importance of tectonic and volcanotectonic structures in driving the ascent of deep gases within the crust. Moreover, greatest amplitude pulsations of the low‐frequency components of the CO2 flux signals were correlated with the paroxystic activities of the 2004–2005 eruption. This study confirms that CO2 flux variation is a useful indicator for volcanic activity in the surveillance of the Mt. Etna and similar basaltic volcanoes.