Image of the Month: June 2021
Check of a geodesy station to measure movements of the sea floor on Mount Etna
Previous studies have shown that the eastern flank of Mount Etna is slowly moving towards the Mediterranean Sea. A sudden landslide could trigger a tsunami. This happened, for example, at Anak Krakatau off Indonesia in 2018 and in Hawaii in 1972. In order to better understand the dynamics of the flank movement at Europe's highest and most active volcano and thus also to improve the hazard assessment for the region, surveying equipment was again installed on the slope area off the coast of Sicily in 2020 during expedition SO277. They use sound signals to measure the distance between each other to an accuracy of a few millimetres. This so-called marine geodesy is currently the only way to measure the movement of the flanks under water. The data, which will be recorded over several years, will allow conclusions to be drawn about the behaviour of the Etna flank.
Photo: Thore Sager / GEOMAR
