Less than 2 days after the previous lava fountaining episode (known as paroxysm), the 9th paroxysm took place from Etna’s New SE crater this morning.
At first, it looked as if the volcano was going to produce the eruption already in the early morning hours: around 2 am local time, mild to moderate strombolian activity started at the New SE crater and soon became near-continuous. A lava flow started to flow from the eastern end of the deep fissure cutting through the cone, and slowly traveled eastwards. At the same time, volcanic tremor started to rise.
However, this activity slowed down again after around 3:30 am and ceased at around dawn, but only to restart about an hour later. From around 8 am, it again increased and this time developed into sustained tall lava fountains between around 9:30-10:30 local time. A tall ash plume rose approx. 4-5 km above the crater and spread into an umbrella cloud that drifted east and caused heavy ash fall in some eastern sectors and as far as Messina town.
