A new paroxysm from the “New SE crater” of Etna is occurring
A new paroxysm (nr 9 in 2011) from the “New SE crater” of Etna is occurring at the time of writing. Following a brief period of intermittent weak explosions starting mid-day today, strombolian activity started to increase sharply the evening of 5 August; activity has now reached near continuous low lava fountaining and is likely to increase in the next hour(s). A lava flow has started to descend into the Valle del Bove. Our team member Marco Fulle is on location documenting this spectacular event.
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
The eruption was somewhat smaller in size than the previous paroxysms. Its main phase lasted from 22h00 to ca. 1 am on 7 August when activity dropped sharply again. The big question is what will come next! Possibly, more paroxsysms (in 2000, a similar series of 66(!) paroxysms occurred from the SE crater), the next one perhaps again in ca. 6 days… Or, a new flank eruption hat finally allows the huge magma storage inside Etna to drain effectively. (VolcanoDiscovery)
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