During the recent tour "From Stromboli to Etna" we observed mild to moderate explosions from Stromboli volcano. The most active vent appears to be in the former central crater, with powerful explosions throwing glowing material up to 200m elevation above the crater and often outside on the N and NE flanks. Other vents in the eastern and western part of the crater erupt occasionally with loud bangs and loud hissing noises produced by strong gas jets.

As observed during our recent tour, Stromboli volcano is producing its mild to moderate strombolian activity from 3 main vents inside the crater complex. At interevals ranging from 10-20 minutes, explosions throw incandescent material to 50-150 meter elevation. In addition, the central crater vent at times is observed near-continuous spattering.

Etna is back to its glory once more.

Last night, a sudden increasee in tremor accompanied the start of a powerful so-called paroxysmal eruption, during which the vent on the E flank of the SE crater, which had been in intermittend mild strombolian activity since mid August, erupted tall lava fountains - several hundres of meters high - and some lava flows. The tall ash columns generated by the intense explosive activity dispersed to the southeast and forced the temporary closure of Catania's airpoirt.

The eruption lasted around 7 hrs and ended around 4:30 this morning.

As our colleague Andrea Ercolani reports from Stromboli, access to the summit area of Stromboli has been reopened for guided tours under certain restrictions. In brief, small groups accompanied with authorized guides can now reach the ridge east of the crater terrace between 750 and around 850 m elevation where a few shelters are located, but the maximum stay is now limited to 30 minutes. Access to the Pizzo summit itself is limited to the time necessary for passing along the trail.

A new short-lived but intense summit eruption (paroxysm) took place at Etna volcano on the afternoon of 29 April. Following a large increase in seismic activity from 11h00 loacl time, the eruption started at around 16:00 with lava fountaining and ash emission from the SE crater. Lava flows that travelled into the Valle del Bove were emitte from vents at the base of the SE crater. The eruption ended abruptly shortly after midnight early on 1 May.

Another brief, but intense eruption occured at Etna today, similar to the one on 29 March: lava fountains erupted from the SE crater and two lava flows emerged from the vent at the base of the SE cone at 3050 m, flowing into Valle del Bove. The eruption lasted for 5 hrs and the most advanced lava flow front reached 1900 m elevation in the Valle del Bove. 

The lava flow from Stromboli volcano stopped today.
Whether this is the end of the effusive eruption that had started 5 weeks ago and heralds the beginning of a new cycle of summit activity is still unclear.

The lava continues to flow on Stromboli. Three branches of lava flows originate at the 420 m vent on the Sciara del Fuoco, two of which still reach the sea.

Etna is active again. Following a rapid increase of tremor starting at 07h24 this morning (29 March, 2007), SE crater began to emit lava fountains and ash plumes until around 9 am. A field investigation showed that this activity, very similar to the episodes in November / December 2006, was accompanied by the effusion of three lava flows: one from the 3180 m vent in the saddle between Bocca Nuova and SE crater, one from the vent on the lower SE flank of Bocca Nuova at 3050 m and one from the SE base of the SE crater cone. The first flows reached the rim of the Piano caldera (marked by the slope break on the upper flank of Etna), the one from the SE crater went towards the Valle del Bove, stopping short of the 2800 m hornito which had been the site of persistant lava effusion from Oct - Dec. 2006.

On 20 March, lava emission from the 400 m vent on the Sciara del Fuoco increased, accompanied by increasing levels of tremor. Two well-alimented lava flow branches were present on the Sciara.
Today, 21 March, tremor has decreased and thermal camera observations show that at least one of the two branches were no longer alimentated and cooling.

On 15 March at 21.37 local time, a powerful explosion occurred from the summit craters of Stromboli, similar but much weaker than the event on 5 April 2003. Incandescent bombs were thrown onto the flanks of the volcano and created small bushfires. Ash fell on the inhabitated centers of the island, but nobody was killed or injured during the eruption.
The monitoring network registered a slightly increased flux of lava from the 400 m vent immediately prior to the explosion. As a security measure, access to the volcano has been reduced frm 400 m to 290 m elevation.

The lava flow from the 400 m vent at the eastern sector of the Sciara del Fuoco is still active.