Dynamics of volcanic eruptions: Understanding electric signatures for activity monitoring

Aside common methods as seismology, ground deformation, and geochemistry, electromagnetic and especially electric ones can efficiently be applied for imaging and monitoring active volcanoes and hydrothermal systems that most often control the initial eruptive phase. Surveys and mappings image ground fluids flow, faults systems, and structural interfaces with anomalies up to several hundred of mV. Reiteration of surveys highlights time and spatial evolution. Continuous networks must extend surveys when the activity becomes stronger. Resolution in the data can reach a few microvolts as compared to the tens of millivolts for surveys. Observations made on several volcanoes definitively show that electric signals, up to some tens of millivolts, may appear some hours to a few weeks before ground deformation and seismicity, and are related to some extent to the location of the future activity. These transient signals may have a relationship with those recorded aboard satellites. Both of them appear during the transition period between the “fatigue” and the “dynamical” stages, which announces accelerating and irreversible processes.