Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 165 (2007) 1 4

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Editorial

Gas geochemistry as a tool to investigate the Earth's degassing

through volcanic and seismic areas: The soul of the 8th International
Conference on Gas Geochemistry
The ICGGs are the only international conferences
fully dedicated to the gas geochemistry, where scientists
coming from many different countries with different
cultures have the opportunity to exchange experiences
on the multiple aspects of gas geochemistry. The main
goal of the conference is always to keep together the gasgeochemistry people, to share their most recent experiences, advances and upgrading in analytical techniques
and in theoretical modelling, in a friendly and constructive environment where everybody feels free to ask any
question and to discuss about past and future cooperation
with all of the colleagues. In many cases the advance in
gas geochemistry researches has already been applied by
several colleagues for practical applications in the fields
of environmental, volcanic and seismic monitoring.
The development in gas-geochemistry knowledge
provides new insights into volatile release from the interior
of the Earth, a continuous and fundamental activity in the
evolution of our planet that has determined the current
composition of the atmosphere and of the Earth itself.
Considering the history of the Earth, the term release
should be substituted by exchange given that the atmosphere, formed by Earth degassing, is in continuous interaction with the lithosphere and the hydrosphere. Volatile
exchange between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface
constitutes an important aspect of global geochemical
cycles of major gas components (H2O, CO2, N2, CH4, S,
halogens) but also of trace metals or noble gas.
It is of common knowledge that Earth degassing
does not occur homogeneously over the Earth's surface,
being rather concentrated along the plate boundaries,
where the dynamics of the lithosphere is more intense
and gas from the Earth's interior can be more easily
transported toward the surface. The connection between
the volcanic and seismic activities, mainly located along
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the plate boundaries, and the Earth's degassing is

therefore obvious. As a well-known example, on a global
scale the seismically active regions are those most
involved in CO2 degassing (Irwin and Barnes, 1980).
Also on a local scale, the relationship between degassing
and seismicity may be direct: recent studies have
highlighted that CO2 can accumulate in natural traps,
generating overpressurized reservoir and triggering earthquakes (Chiodini et al., 2004; Miller at al., 2004). Gas
geochemistry has also been used in the search of reliable
precursors of seismic activity and a lot of anomalous
signals have been recognised a posteriori. For a
comprehensive review we refer to the articles of King
(1986) and Toutain and Baubron (1999).
Although the most spectacular and concentrated
manifestations of Earth's degassing are from volcanic
plumes, many other degassing ways (soil emanation,
mofettes, mud volcanoes, bubbling waters, etc.), some of
which important for the global geochemical cycles, occur.
An example: mud volcanoes present both on and off-shore
in tectonically active regions release to the atmosphere
large amounts of CH4 quantitatively important for the geochemical cycle of this compound (Milkov et al., 2003),
besides significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Moreover,
natural emissions of CO2 and CH4 are sources of greenhouse gases and take part in the climate change models.
Despite the various ways of outcropping at the Earth's
surface, the chemical compounds that constitute the
major volatiles and thus act as carrier for minor and trace
species are restricted to H2O (in the form of water vapour
in volcanic environments), CO2 and CH4. Rarely are
N2-dominated gas phases found. The origin of such gas
species is much debated, and in this sense the isotopic
compositions of C, H, O as well as of minor or trace
species (S, He, Ne, Ar) are usually studied in detail. The

Editorial

origin of CO2 is attributed to a direct provenance from

the mantle through degassing of magmas or to CO2
production in response to thermal and/or chemical decomposition of carbonate horizons in the crust (e.g. Marty,
2001). Although the CO2 produced by organic matter
decay usually represents a small part of the total in areas of
high-flux emissions, it could sometimes be the only
source also along important active tectonic structures like
the San Andreas fault in California (Lewicki et al., 2003).
Recent studies show how CO2 can be generated in the
absence of heat as the primary energy source and that
mechanical energy, as primary source (that obviously
produces heat as a consequence of the Joule effect), is able
to induce a total dissociation of calcite by milling effect
(Martinelli and Plescia, 2004; Italiano et al., 2005 and
references therein). This mechanism may account for the
existence of large CO2 reservoirs where the isotopic ratio
of helium as low as 0.010.02 Ra reveals the absence of
mantle-derived fluids.
Talking about CH4, two main generation processes
are possible: the thermogenic and the biogenic (microbial) alteration of kerogene (Schoell, 1983).
Air or air-saturated water infiltrated in the crust and
recycled in degassing areas is the most common source
of N2 (Giggenbach, 1991). At convergent plate boundaries, the main process responsible for the contribution
of non-atmospheric nitrogen seems to be the recycling
of sedimentary material from the subducting lithosphere, although upper mantle degassing could sometimes contribute (Sano et al., 2001).
During the transport of volatile phases toward the
surface, the interaction with aquifers plays a fundamental role in determining the final gas composition, given
that the different solubility of the various gas species
modifies both the absolute and relative amounts of gas
reaching the surface. As a consequence of gaswater
interaction, the most soluble gas species (SO2 and the
acid species like H2S, HCl and HF present in volcanic
environments) will be enriched in the aqueous phase
giving birth to new equilibria in water, while the less
soluble species (like light noble gases) will as a result be
enriched in the gas phase. Carbon dioxide has intermediate behaviour and being less soluble than sulphur
and halogen species it becomes highly enriched in gases
released by geothermal systems (Symonds et al., 2001).
Also, during gaswater interaction isotopic equilibria
will take place between the free and dissolved species,
the most studied system in this sense being the CO2
H2OCaCO3 (see Hoefs, 1987).
Volcanoes continuously emit gases to the atmosphere,
both during and between eruptions, carrying important
information about underground magmatic and hydro-

thermal conditions, with application in eruption forecasting. Their study is also important because of their
strong impacts upon the atmosphere, climate and human
health (Graf et al., 1997; Robock, 2000; Delmelle, 2003).
Volcanoes, in fact, sometimes rival with anthropogenic
sources in emission strength, becoming global or at
least regional scale pollution sources. For example,
Mt. Etna (Italy) is considered as the greatest HF point
source to the atmosphere (Francis et al., 1998) while
daily SO2 emission of Miyakejima volcano (Japan)
during the climactic stages of its recent eruptive crisis
(20002001) was comparable to the anthropogenic
emissions of the whole Asia (Kazahaya et al., 2004).
Due to the importance of volcanic gas geochemistry,
measuring techniques have evolved very rapidly in the
recent period. The traditional and sometimes very hazardous direct sampling techniques were associated to a
large variety of remote sensing techniques both ground(McGonigle, 2005) and satellite-based (Carn et al.,
2003; Gu et al., 2005).
Gases from the Earth's interior may also appear in the
form of small inclusions (usually b1 mm) in glasses or
minerals that during their growth trapped portions of the
fluid present in their environment (e.g. Roedder, 1984).
Volcanic eruption, tectonic movements and/or erosion
can take such minerals to or near the surface, where they
can be sampled. Fluid inclusions are of great value for
scientists as they help in reconstruct the history of fluids
and minerals before any possible contamination at surface with atmospheric gas.
Another aspect of the direct effect of Earth's degassing on human life is represented by focused or diffuse cold gas emissions, usually CO2-dominated and
present in both volcanic and non-volcanic areas. Despite
being apparently harmless, such gas emissions have
sometimes caused both sudden human death due to the
toxicity of many compounds (CO2, sulphur gases like
SO2 and H2S, volatile As compounds) and long-term
diseases due to high concentration of radon, a radioactive
noble gas.
The 8th International Conference on Gas Geochemistry (ICGG 8) was held in Sicily (Italy) in two different
sites: Palermo, the capital, and Milazzo, a small town in
NE Sicily. The latter town falls in an area affected (unfortunately) by all of the above-mentioned Earth's degassing conditions. The NE Sicily area is surrounded by
the volcanic arc of the Eolian Islands, made up of active
and quiescent volcanoes, to the north; the active volcano
of Mt. Etna to the south; the seismic area of the Messina
Strait (90,000 dead in M7.2, 1908 earthquake) to the
east; and the seismic area of Patti Gulf (last destructive
earthquake M6.4 in 1978) to the west.

Editorial

The 8th International Conference on Gas Geochemistry (ICGG 8, 2nd8th October, 2005) was part of a
series of meetings that were held in Mons, Belgium in
1990, Besanon, France in 1993, Amristar, India in
1995, Rome, Italy in 1997, Debrecen, Hungary in 1999,
Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2001 and Freiberg, Germany in
2003. The next conference is due to be held in Taipei,
Taiwan in October 2007.
A total of 82 participants coming from 14 countries
attended the ICGG 8, and 93 papers were presented in the
conference which covered a variety of important research topics regarding gas geochemistry in geosciences:
from the advances in researches on mechanochemical
gas production to practical applications to evaluate the
impact of volcanic emissions on the environment; from
the most advanced estimations on Earth's degassing
devoted to a better evaluation of climate changes to
advanced contributions for gas hazard management
in populated seismic and volcanic areas; from genetic
evaluations of the gases released through tectonic lines to
modifications induced by seismic activity.
Eight representative contributions have been included in this special issue of Journal of Volcanology and
Geothermal Research. The first one (Carapezza and
Tarchini) shows that gas geochemistry offers important
clues on the probable activity of the Alban Hills, a
volcanic system close to Rome previously considered
extinct. The following three papers highlight the importance of carbon dioxide efflux measurements. In the
first case (Barberi et al.) this technique is applied for
the definition and mitigation of gas hazard, an often
neglected natural risk. Carbon dioxide efflux measurements were used by Lan et al. and Giammanco et al.,
together with chemical and isotopic analyses of gas
manifestations, for the study of active degassing areas
at geothermal and volcanic systems. In both cases the
results concur in the quantification of the total carbon
dioxide release of the systems and in the definition of
the gas sources. The paper of D'Alessandro et al.
evidences the possibility of studying paleodegassing of
an area through the analysis of travertine deposits.
Brogna et al. focus their paper on public health issues
raised by Radon release by active tectonic structures in
a volcanic area. Estimates of methane emissions from
geothermal and volcanic sources in Europe made by
Etiope et al. are important for the greenhouse-gas
atmospheric budget calculations and add constraints
for the modelling of future scenarios of climate change.
Passive degassing activity of volcanoes represents an
important contribution to atmospheric burden of many
elements with strong environmental impacts, at least at
local scale. Bellomo et al. in their paper discuss the

effects of volcanic-derived fluorine in the area around

Mt. Etna.
Acknowledgements
The conference was supported by INGV funds and
received a special support from GV Instruments. We
would like to express our gratitude to the authors who
have contributed to this special issue. We are also
grateful to all the reviewers who gave their critical and
constructive comments and suggestions, thereby improving the manuscripts.
Special thanks to Dr. Francesca Leone who dealt with
all of the abstracts and manuscripts before, during and
after the conference. Without her efforts the publication
of this special issue would not be possible. Thanks are
due to all of the colleagues from INGV-Section of
Palermo who cooperated with the organizer to carry out
the conference.
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F. Italiano*
W. D'Alessandro
M. Martelli
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia,
Sezione di Palermo, via U. La Malfa 153,
Palermo, Italy
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0916809411;
fax: +39 0916809449.
E-mail address: italiano@pa.ingv.it (F. Italiano).
9 May 2007