The INGV volcano observatory reported that strombolian activity from the South-East crater began to increase last night.
The new eruption has been picking up gradually from 18:40 UTC, which became stronger and continuous, defined by a pulsating lava fountaining episode (likely to be classified as paroxysm) from the crater accompanied by continuous dense ash emissions. Glowing basaltic lapilli-to-bomb-sized scoria material has been regularly ejected onto the upper outer sloper of the crater and caused small incandescent avalanches. From an accessible webcam pointing to the eruptive site, the height of lava fountains seems to have surpassed by some lava jets several hundreds of meters above the vent.
This resulted in a new lava flow triggering from the southern flank of the South-East crater.
Ash and black lapilli set (tephra) have been reported in the area of Rifugio Sapienza – Piano Vetore from the ongoing paroxysm.
The live stream of the ongoing eruption, available here, indicates a likelihood of a reduced activity at the volcano’s SE summit crater, showing active brownish ash emissions, described as „earthy“. This could mean that most of the emitted material might be from older lava rocks in the summit crater or inside the vent right now.
Prior to the eruption, the seismic network recorded a sharp peak in internal continuous vibrations (so-called tremor) at 18:00 UTC, a typical sign for the impending paroxysm, indicating magma moving upwards through the volcanic conduits. The high-amplitude volcanic tremor lasted about 20 minutes before the eruption onset. The earthquake swarm is being located at altitude between 2800 and 2900 meters beneath the South-East crater.
From a ground deformation point of view, no significant values have been detected.
Source: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia volcano activity update 14 August 2023
Woahh! #Etna chucking out those lava bombs!!!Another livestream – https://t.co/JaGgpPujOK pic.twitter.com/H4PFavqxDu
— Volcaholic(@volcaholic1) August 13, 2023
Yet another livestream#Etna still going strong Link – https://t.co/KiH1YLfQ7q pic.twitter.com/cMHUtI0qFT
— Volcaholic (@volcaholic1) August 13, 2023
