Statistical evaluation of compositional changes in volcanic gas chemistry: a case study

In this paper, an investigation on the chemical composition of fumarolic gases collected at Vulcano island (Sicily, southern Italy) is performed, with the aim to discover how data changes during the monitored period of time, and to design a strategy for the environmental surveillance of volcanic systems taking into account the nature of the analyzed data. In order to summarize the contribution of all the components that can affect the chemical composition of volcanic gases, a multivariate statistical approach appears to be suitable.