The first fiery red flashes appeared last night. Then, from this morning, it was the instruments of the Etnean Observatory of Catania of the Ingv that recorded the end of the apparent stillness that Etna showed for several weeks, after more than a year of high intensity. And tonight, those flashes have morphed into Strombolian activity, into a small lava flow and a plume of gas and ash heading west. It is always he who puts on a show, the South East crater, the one that volcanologists measured last summer by discovering that it became the highest peak of Etna precisely because of the continuous eruptions: 3357 meters, 31 more than the crater of North East which had held the record since the distant 80s.
Today’s activity is described by a series of bulletins issued by the Ingv of Catania. The last one, tonight, says that “starting from about 5 pm there has been, through alternating phases in terms of intensity and frequency, a decisive intensification of Strombolian activity at the South East crater. On the basis of the forecast model, the plume volcanic (the plume, ed) heads west. The lava flow produced by the activity in progress at the South East crater still appears to be fed and the front has reached an estimated altitude of about 2900 meters above sea level. The phase of increasing the average amplitude of the volcanic tremor continued, which reached a high level with an oscillatory trend. The sources of the tremor remain in the area of the South East crater, at an altitude of about 2800-2900 meters above the sea level ». Tremor is that microseismic activity with which volcanologists record the ascent of magma from the ducts and towards the outside.
In short, not only what can be seen visibly tonight but also in the instruments, it is clear that Etna records a phase of activity even if at the moment not worrying at all. The current eruptive phase does not affect the activity of the Catania airport.