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Measurement of volcanic deformation

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The measurement of ground deformation in volcanic areas is extremely important because these often occur as precursors of eruptions, or however are indicative of an increase of volcanic activity. Under the pressure of the magma present below the volcanoes, in fact, the volcano tends to "inflate" its walls to deform until the magma does not find a way out. Unlike what you may imagine, even in association with massive phenomena, the  deformation may be relatively small with order of a few centimeters or tens of centimeters.

The use of the techniques of differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) is essential in this case. In particular, the technique SBAS (which stands for Small BAseline Subset), developed entirely at the IREA-CNR in Naples, allows to follow the temporal evolution of deformation.