Volcano Crisis Management at Piton de la Fournaise (La Reunion) during the COVID-19 Lockdown
Journal article, 2021

In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and became a global health crisis. Authorities worldwide implemented lockdowns to restrict travel and social exchanges in a global effort to counter the pandemic. In France, and in French overseas departments, the lockdown was effective from 17 March to 11 May 2020. It was in this context that the 2-6 April 2020 eruption of Piton de la Fournaise (La Reunion Island, Indian Ocean) took place. Upon the announcement of the lockdown in France, a reduced activity plan was set up by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, which manages the Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF). The aim was to (1) maintain remote monitoring operations by teleworking and (2) authorize fieldwork only for critical reasons, such as serious breakdowns of stations or transmission relays. This eruption provided an opportunity for the observatory to validate its capacity to manage a volcanic crisis with 100% remotely operated monitoring networks. We thus present the longand short-term precursors to the eruption, and the evolution of the eruption recorded using the real-time monitoring data as communicated to the stakeholders. The data were from both continuously recording and transmitting field instruments as well as satellites. The volcano observatory staff remotely managed the volcano crisis with the various stakeholders based only on these remotely functioning networks. Monitoring duties were also assured in the absence of ad hoc field investigation of the eruption by observatory staff or face-to-face communications. The density and reliability of the OVPF networks, combined with satellite observations, allowed for trustworthy instrument-based monitoring of the eruption and continuity of the OVPF duties in issuing regular updates of volcanic activity in the context of a double crisis: volcanic and health.

Author

Aline Peltier

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Valerie Ferrazzini

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Andrea Di Muro

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Philippe Kowalski

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Nicolas Villeneuve

Paris Descartes University

Université de La Réunion

Nicole Richter

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)

Paris Descartes University

Oryaelle Chevrel

Clermont Auvergne University

Jean Luc Froger

Clermont Auvergne University

Alexis Hrysiewicz

University College Dublin

Clermont Auvergne University

Mathieu Gouhier

Clermont Auvergne University

Diego Coppola

University of Turin

Lise Retailleau

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Francois Beauducel

Savoie Mont Blanc University

Paris Descartes University

Lucia Gurioli

Clermont Auvergne University

Patrice Boissier

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Christophe Brunet

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Philippe Catherine

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Fabrice Fontaine

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Frederic Lauret

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Luciano Garavaglia

Paris Descartes University

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Jacques Lebreton

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Kevin Canjamale

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Nicolas Desfete

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Cyprien Griot

Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Paris Descartes University

Andrew Harris

Clermont Auvergne University

Santiago Arellano

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Microwave and Optical Remote Sensing

Marco Liuzzo

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology

Sergio Gurrieri

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology

Michael Ramsey

University of Pittsburgh

Seismological Research Letters

0895-0695 (ISSN) 19382057 (eISSN)

Vol. 92 1 38-52

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Communication Studies

DOI

10.1785/0220200212

More information

Latest update

2/8/2021 3