In situ Volcano Monitoring: Present and Future

During the last couple of decades, volcanology has evolved significantly, allowing for an improved understanding of volcanic processes preceding, accompanying and following eruptive events. Key elements to these achievements are the huge amounts of high quality data being collected by networks of increasingly sensitive instruments deployed at active volcanoes. The diffusion of continuous, precise measurements of: (1) wide-band ground displacement; (2) flux and chemistry of volatile emissions; and (3) the spatio-temporal variations of potential fields (e.g., gravity) now permit imaging the mechanism that controls mass transfer underneath volcanoes to an unprecedented level of detail. Joined to the establishment of a solid theoretical framework, these progresses are contributing to the evolution of the short- to medium-term forecast of volcanic eruptions from a phenomenological approach to a forecasting based on understanding of the physics of the causative processes.