The recent intense eruptive activity of the volcano, involving intermittent lava flows, intense rockfalls and occasional small pyroclastic flows on the Sciara del Fuoco, has calmed down significantly during the past days.
The lava flow from the northern crater area that had been active as result of lava over-spilling the vent of the northern crater ceased by Thursday 14 Oct, but activity continued as violent, continuous spattering from the westernmost of the northern vents (N2 vent), which our group on the ongoing Volcanoes of Italy tour observed on the evening of Saturday 15 Oct (image attached). Occasional weak, ash-rich strombolian explosions were also seen from the northeastern main vent (N1), at intervals of 30-40 minutes.
On the next day, spattering activity had ceased; only weak strombolian activity occurred from the northern vents. Likely, this was caused by the drop of the internal magma column that earlier had been generating the lava overflows.
Access to the volcano was temporarily limited to the limits of the inhabited areas; only accompanied with guides it was possible to reach up to 290 m. It is expected that this rule expires today or in the next days, and access will again be free to 290 m generally and 400 m with a guide only.