Upwards migration of seismic focii: a forerunner of the 1989 eruption of Mt Etna (Italy)

Data from a portable array of three-component digital stations, run at Mt Etna from 1988 to early 1990, highlight the seismic behaviour of the volcano before the 1989 eruption, one of the most significant in terms of energy of the last two decades. After a two-year period of weak and discotinuous seismicity, the depth of the seismically active volumes was observed to become shallower a few months before the volcanic event. The overall migration of the events, inferred by hypocentral locations and decreases of S-P time differences at two stations, agrees with other geophysical forerunners and allows further insights into the changes in the stress field leading to the eruption.