| Abstract: | The digitized lava-flow margins of well-defined extended eruptions occurring at Vesuvio in 1760, 1794, 1861, 1906, 1929 and 1944 are found to follow fractal behaviours inside a scaling region enclosed between 50 and 400 m. Although the invariance region is well respected, the fractal dimension D varies from one lava flow to another: the more irregular the lava-flow margin, the larger the value of D. The ascertained dependence of D on the duration of premonitory activity, preceding the emission of lavas, might provide some insight into the inner volcanic processes before the eruption and into the dynamical processes operating during flow emplacement. |
