A powerful sudden explosion occurred at the Bocca Nuova summit crater today at 1:12 pm local time. The eruption lasted a few minutes only and created an ash column that rose approx. 1,500 m above the summit before dispersing to the northeast.
Light ashfall occurred in the upper part of the volcano.
The explosion was not preceded by any detected precursory sign and likely did not involve new magma, but was caused by sudden explosion of overheated water inside the conduits (so-called phreatic activity). Such sudden, but very violent explosions are a serious hazard for climbers in the summit region and can occur during apparent phases of calm at the volcano and have no warnings. A similar event occurred on August 25, 2010, also at the Bocca Nuova crater.
The volcano observatory mentions that there are no signs of correlation between this explosive event and the magnitude 4.5 earthquake that occurred this morning at 7:05 a.m. local time in the province of Catania.