Volcanoes have terrified and, at the same time, fascinated civilizations
for thousands of years. Many aspects of volcanoes, most notably the
eruptive processes and the compositional variations of magma, have been
widely investigated for several decades and today constitute the core of
any volcanology textbook. Nevertheless, in the last two decades, boosted
by the availability of volcano monitoring data, there has been an
increasing interest in the pre-eruptive processes related to the shallow
accumulation and to the transfer of magma approaching the surface, as
well as in the resulting structure of volcanoes. These are innovative
and essential aspects of modern volcanology and, as driving volcanic
unrest, their understanding also improves hazard assessment and eruption
forecasting. So far, the significant progress made in unravelling these
volcano-tectonic processes has not been supported by a comprehensive
overview.
This monograph aims at filling this gap, describing the pre-eruptive
processes related to the structure, deformation and tectonics of
volcanoes, at the local and regional scale, in any tectonic setting. The
monograph is organized into three sections ("Fundamentals", "Magma
migration towards the surface" and "The regional perspective"),
consisting of thirteen chapters that are lavishly illustrated. The
reader is accompanied in a journey within the volcano factory,
discovering the processes associated with the shallow accumulation of
magma and its transfer towards the surface, how these control the
structure of volcanoes and their activity and, ultimately, improve our
ability to estimate hazard and forecast eruption.
The potential readership includes any academic, researcher and upper
undergraduate student interested in volcanology, magma intrusions,
structural geology, tectonics, geodesy, as well as geology and
geophysics in general.
