This morning, the ongoing eruptive activity at the volcano changed: a lava flow started to emerge from a vent on the eastern summit of the New SE crater and quickly descended to its base.
At the same time, the strombolian activity from the New SE crater’s main vent and, less frequently, from the Voragine central crater, decreased a bit (but continue). Both had been quite impressive during the past days, especially the activity at the New SE crater. While fluctuating and at times being intense, it had not intensified to another paroxysm (lava fountaining episode) such as on 13-14, 21 and 22 Dec last month, something that had been more or less expected.
Volcanic tremor is currently moderate to high, but not showing significant variations compared to previous days.
It might be worth mentioning that 3 quakes of magnitudes above 3 occurred under the volcano yesterday. Some were felt by people in the area. Whether they indicate magma movements and further changes in activity in the near future remains speculation. As usual, Etna, always good for surprises, will tell us the answer!
