The recent phase of intermittent strombolian activity at the New SE crater seems to have ended for now.
While the volcano has once again calmed down at the surface, internal activity shows interesting developments: another swarm of small earthquakes occurred during the last days under the eastern flank north of Milo including two tremors of magnitudes 3.1 near Monte Fontane. Different from the previous swarm at the end of April, the quakes involved this time were shallower, located mostly between 10-5 km depths. They likely involve local faults in this area that typically react to both gravitational adjustments of Etna’s eastern flank and magma intrusions into shallower reservoirs, thus could indicate a magma recharging event of Etna.
Whether the seismic swarms are heralding new eruptive activity in the near or medium-term future (weeks to months from now) can only be speculated about at this moment, but the situation merits close monitoring.