A powerful paroxysm – or lava fountaining episode – is in progress at the volcano now at the SE crater. After a week of activity fluctuating between moderate and high levels, Etna decided again to escalate into a short-lived phase of intense lava fountains.
This episode comes about a week since the last one on 4 June. In the time between, the volcano had not calmed down as usual during intervals, but remained active with weak to moderate strombolian activity from the crater, and moderate to high tremor levels, indicating that the magma column had not subsided a lot since.
The newest episode this evening began to produce lava fountains from around 21:45 pm local time and lasted until about midnight. This time, the activity was noticeable stronger than during the previous shorter episodes observed in late May and more similar to typical paroxysms such as those in February and March earlier this year.
The lava flow from the southern flank of the crater was well alimented and continued to travel towards the SW. Another lava flow emerged during the paroxysm from the east side of the cone and reached the western headwall of the Valle del Bove.
