Continuous gravity record at Mount Vesuvius: A tool to monitor its dynamics

The results of more than three years of continuous gravity record on Mt. Ve suvius (Southern Italy) are presented and discussed. The goal of this research is to determine whether continuous gravity record s can improve the overall monitoring efforts at the volcano specifically by detecting a gravity signal of "non-tidaI" origin. The ocean and atmospheri c effects have been taken into account for the computation of the tidal par ameters and gravity residuals. Tidal analyses have been carried out by mean s of classical and recent methodologies and the results compared. The time dependent behaviour of the main tidal parameters and of the gravit y residuals have been compared with features of the vesuvian dynamics, name ly with the seismic activity and the temporal gravity changes detected by a bsolute and relative gravimetry. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.