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The eruption continues on its gradually increasing trend. Pyroclastic flows – turbulent and hot avalanches of hot lava rocks, ash and volcanic gasses mixed together – are being released from the growing dome and now descend the SW flank of the volcano.
This morning, a glowing avalanche reached 1200 m in the Kali Krasak drainage at 05:35 local time.
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During the past hours, activity from the New SE crater has been increasing significantly and is currently showing intense and near-constant strombolian explosions. It seems very much as if it is heading for another paroxysm in the next hours if not less.
The volcanic tremor signal is also on an increasing trend.
During most of the day, when visibility allowed views, there were small and irregular ash emissions, likely related to smaller explosions from the New SE crater. In the evening, constant glow and intermittent explosions were visible. These have been increasing significantly during the past few hours.
A short phase of elevated activity occurred at the volcano last night. A small surge of magma apparently resulted in a series of lava flows from the northern vents onto the upper Sciara del Fuoco, generating beautiful incandescent rockfalls on the steep slope. None of the flows reached more than about 100-200 m length and none remained active very long.
Generally, activity at the volcano has been at the lower end of the scale, with relatively few and generally weak strombolian explosions from the „usual“ vents in the crater terrace.
Time-lapse video of the activity during the night 18-19 Jan 2021:
It might be a bit surprising, or at least interesting, coincidence or not, that it occurred at the same time as Etna’s new paroxysm. Although there is no proven link between the two volcanoes, many local people believe that they are somehow related and often follow similar swings in activity, something that remains open to debate.
