Here we present a new volcanological map of the Southwestern portion of the Vesuvius volcano at a scale of 1:10,000. Mapped units were subdivided into Unconformity-Bounded Stratigraphic Units. This work constitutes a significant development with respect to previous maps, particularly for the medieval lavas. It also includes a series of volcanic-tectonic lineaments, which have never been reported in any of the previous cartographic works. Archeological and historical data were used for mapping the lava emitted during the last 2000 years. All the historical lava flow paths and tephra deposits of the last 4000 years that were reported on the map and evidence the intimate relationship between volcanological and morphological features, and the development of human activity on this very densely populated sector of the volcano. ARTICLE HISTORY

Volcanic islands are often affected by ground displacement such as slope instability, due to their peculiar morphology. This is the case of Ischia Island (Naples, Italy) dominated by the Mt. Epomeo (787 m a.s.l.), a volcano-tectonic horst located in the central portion of the island. This study aims to follow a long temporal evolution of ground deformations on the island through the interferometric analysis of satellite SAR data. Different datasets, acquired during Envisat, COSMO-SkyMed and Sentinel-1 satellite missions, are for the first time processed in order to obtain the island ground deformations during a time interval spanning 17 years, from November 2002 to December 2019. In detail, the multitemporal differential interferometry technique, named small baseline subset, is applied to produce the ground displacement maps and the associated displacement time series. The results, validated through the analysis and the comparison with a set of GPS measurements, show that the northwestern side of Mt. Epomeo is the sector of the island characterized by the highest subsidence movements (maximum vertical displacement of 218 mm) with velocities ranging from 10 to 20 mm/yr. Finally, the displacement time series allow us to correlate the measured ground deformations with the seismic swarm started with the Mw 3.9 earthquake that occurred on 21 August 2017. Such correlations highlight an acceleration of the ground, following the mainshock, characterized by a subsidence displacement rate of 0.12 mm/day that returned to pre-earthquake levels (0.03 mm/day) after 6 months from the event.

No abstract

<p>Ground deformation at volcanic areas is mainly driven by the interaction between lithology, morphology, seismology and volcanism. In the latest decades, radar interferometry has contributed to understand the volcanic dynamics through the measurement of ground deformations. This work focuses on the displacement analysis at Ischia, an active volcanic island located at the north-western end of the Gulf of Naples and characterized by a long eruptive and seismic history. The central portion of the island is dominated by Mt. Epomeo, a volcano-tectonic horst formed by caldera resurgence, tilted southward and bordered by a system of faults and fractures which represent the preferred degassing pathway of the hydrothermal system beneath the island. Seismicity is mainly concentrated in the northern area and the most recent and severe seismic sequence started with the Mw 3.9 earthquake on August 21<sup>st</sup> 2017 producing several damages and also victims. In this study, the investigation of surface displacement was carried out over a continuous time interval of about 17 years by using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) dataset with different temporal and spatial resolutions. The Small Baseline Subset interferometric technique was applied to the dataset allowing the identification of the areas more potentially prone to trigger slope instability phenomena. The resulting ground displacement maps identified the highest deformations along the north-western, western and southern slopes of Mt. Epomeo and were validated by using GPS data acquired by local geodetic network. Mean velocity maps obtained from C-band Envisat and Sentinel-1 and X-band COSMO-SkyMed SAR data will be presented together with the ground deformation effects caused by the 2017 seismic swarm.</p>

No abstract