Observing the Earth from space to monitor, in real time, the evolution of an exceptionally rare geological phenomenon: 1.4 cubic kilometres of magma propagating for around 50 kilometres underground without ever reaching the surface. No volcanic eruption, but a massive magmatic intrusion that left unmistakable signs behind: ground deformation and thousands of earthquakes.
This is what occurred in the Ethiopian Rift Valley between December 2024 and March 2025, during a geological crisis monitored both by satellite and through field observations by an international team coordinated by Carolina Pagli, Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Pisa. The work carried out during those months has now been published in Science Advances, one of the leading international journals in the Science family.
“These are events that occur only after centuries of stress accumulation within the Earth’s crust, making them exceptionally rare to observe,” explains Carolina Pagli. “When the crisis began on 22 December 2024, we were contacted by colleagues at Addis Ababa University. For around three months, until March 2025, we tracked the movement of the magma, providing information that also contributed to risk assessment and emergency management by the Ethiopian authorities.”
Using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), the researchers measured ground deformation with millimetre precision by comparing radar images acquired at different times. The analysis combined data from the European Sentinel-1 satellites and the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation, making it possible to monitor a remote and difficult-to-access area.
“Observing the Earth from space is profoundly changing the way we study the planet’s major geological processes,” concludes Carolina Pagli. “I also hope this work will encourage young women who are considering a career in research. It is important to continue building a scientific environment in which everyone has the same opportunity to contribute their expertise.”
In addition to the University of Pisa, the study involved the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences and the University of Potsdam (Germany), the National Research Council – Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment (CNR-IREA), the University of Bologna, the South China Agricultural University, the University of Southampton, the University of Florence, and Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia).
The research was funded as part of the Space It Up project, dedicated to the development of space applications.
