Deep CO2 release revealed by stable isotope and diffuse degassing surveys at Vulcano (Aeolian Islands) in 2015–2018

Hazardous Changes in Soil CO2 Emissions at Vulcano, Italy, in 2021

“…Albeit the soil gases could have various proportions of CO 2 and the carbon isotope compositions could be heavily 13 C‐depleted (Cerling, 1984; Lucic et al., 2015), the biologic endmember at Vulcano were selected as the soil gases having: (a) the highest CO 2 contents (i.e., CO 2 concentrations ∼ 4.0 vol %) and (b) the most 13 C‐depleted isotopic signature (i.e., δ 13 C‐CO 2 = −24‰). The selected biologic endmember values were in line with those observed in earlier studies at Vulcano (Di Martino et al., 2016b, 2020a), and were consistent with those of Lucic et al. (2015) who investigated the origin CO 2 in soil gases at Long Valley Caldera—USA.…”

Thermal unrest of a fumarolic field tracked using VIIRS imaging bands: The case of La fossa crater (Vulcano Island, Italy)

“…Among these signals, the variation of the emitted heat flux is certainly an important indicator of a state of disequilibrium within the magmatic system. Here we report the results of a detailed analysis of VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) imaging bands (at 375 m spatial resolution) focused on measuring the Volcanic Radiative Power (VRP) emitted by the fumarole field of La Fossa crater (Vulcano Island, Italy) over the past decade (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). The analysis reveals that the long-term, steady-state VRP (baseline ~0.17 MW) was perturbed in 2020-2021 when a prolonged period of lower than normal (<-2σ) radiant flux preceded the major unrest phase that began in mid-September 2021.…”

Geological CO2 quantified by high-temporal resolution stable isotope monitoring in a salt mine

“…While this would be an additional task for future investigations, this study at a single location lays the fundamentals for such follow-up studies and demonstrates the benefit of long-term isotope observations to quantify dynamic variabilities of total CO 2 and its apportionment into different sources. In volcanic influenced areas, extensive monitoring has already proven beneficiary to estimate total carbon fluxes into the atmosphere 8 , 49 , and similar studies should be extended to areas where geogenic CO 2 emissions are suspected. Mine venting systems provide an opportunity for these kinds of investigations when mine topology and ventilation parameters can be obtained.…”

“…Knowledge of geologically derived CO 2 -fluxes in tectonically active and seismic areas, as well as in areas of geothermal heat flow, is well established [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] . In the last decade, it has been increasingly acknowledged that the Earth's mantle and crust CO 2 emissions may account for a substantial quantity of the global atmospheric carbon cycle 11,12 .…”

“…Nonetheless, diffusive degassing may be the quantitatively predominant process of geogenic CO 2 losses to the atmosphere 2 . While contributions and their dynamics have been extensively studied near volcanos and in geothermal regions 8 , 14 – 18 , short-term temporal and spatial dynamics of geogenic CO 2 -releases to the atmosphere have likely been underestimated 12 , especially from regions without geothermal heat flow. Similar uncertainties exist for natural geogenic CO 2 emissions from mining environments.…”