A scattering image of Campi Flegrei from the autocorrelation functions of velocity tomograms

Abstract

We propose a new quantitative approach for the joint interpretation of velocity and attenuation tomography images, performed through the lateral separation of scattering and intrinsic attenuation. The horizontal P-wave scattering attenuation structure below Campi Flegrei Caldera (CFC) is imaged using the autocorrelation functions (ACF) of P-wave vertical velocity fluctuations. Cluster analysis (CA) is then applied to interpret the images derived from ACF and the available P-wave total attenuation images at 2000m quantitatively. The analysis allows the separation of intrinsic and scattering attenuation on a 2-D plane, adding new geophysical constraints to the present knowledge about this volcanic area. The final result is a new, quantitative image of the past and present tectonic and volcanological state of CFC. P-wave intrinsic dissipation dominates in an area approximately located under the volcanic centre of Solfatara, as expected in a region with a large presence of fluids and gas. A north-south scattering attenuation region is mainly located below the zone of maximum uplift in the 1982-1984 bradiseismic crisis, in the sea side of the Pozzuoli bay, but also extending below Mt Nuovo. This evidence favours the interpretation in terms of a hard but fractured body, contoured by strong S-wave scatterers, corresponding to the Caldera rim: the region is possibly a section of the residual magma body, associated with the 1538 eruption of Mt Nuovo. © 2011 The Authors Geophysical Journal International © 2011 RAS.