Another spectacular lava fountaining episode (or paroxysm) occurred at the volcano over night, again from the New SE crater. It came almost exactly 48 hours after the surprise eruption that had taken place during the night of 18-19 May:
It evolved in a very typical fashion, again. After having been almost completely silent since the end of the previous eruption, signs of life returned around 1.30 local time early this morning. From 1.34 am, strombolian activity set in at the New SE crater’s summit vent and began to quickly pick up in frequency and intensity over the next 90 minutes.
By 3 am, it had merged into sustained lava fountains that reached heights of approx. 500 meters. The lava fountaining phase lasted about 2 hours, and, as typical for Etna’s paroxysms, suddenly and rapidly ceased at around 5 am in the morning.
During the eruption, the eastern vents of the SE crater were not or only weakly active, while most activity had been from vents on the central and western vents. Only a small lava flow was erupted as overflow from the central crater area towards the SW (Torre del Filosofo area), following and overlying the paths of numerous previous lava flows erupted in the past months and years.
Are we at the beginning of another series of lava fountaining phases with regular and rather short intervals? Only Etna knows, but it might very well be so. It will be interesting to see what happens at the volcano in the next 48 hours or so…
Image credit: Giorgio Costa / facebook
