Source model for the 2001 flank eruption of Mt. Etna volcano

Using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) we constrain the deformation sources for the July–August 2001 flank eruption of Mt. Etna volcano, Italy. InSAR data from ascending and descending passes of the ERS2 satellite reveal a pattern of deformation that cannot be explained by a dike intrusion alone. In addition to a vertical dike beneath the south rift zone, the spatially large (10 km scale, 15–20 cm in range) negative range displacement lobes across the western (descending data) and eastern (ascending data) flanks require a nearly symmetric set of shallowly dipping normal faults to each side of the central dike. Complexity in the observed InSAR surface displacements constrains an additional dike intrusion beneath its NE flank. Long‐term deformation of Etna's eastern and southern flanks is well established through field and InSAR observations. Therefore, the relative symmetry of motion beneath both the western and eastern flanks during the 2001 eruption is surprising. Our model of symmetric flank motion suggests that on the short time scales of a large dike intrusion volcanoes can deform differently from their long‐term deformation.