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7th episode of strombolian activity in 2013

Etna has returned to apparent calm, but it is probably only a matter of days before new activity appears, likely at either Bocca Nuova or the New SE crater. Diffuse ash emissions seem to be occurring from the latter (see image).
The eruption last night from Bocca Nuova was the 7th eruptive episode of this kind in the summit area during the past 3 weeks. 5 of them occurred at the Bocca Nuova, whereas the other 2 came from the New Southeast Crater (INGV Catania).
The activity has abruptly dropped. This "mini-paroxysm" seems to be coming to an end already. Activity is getting stronger by the minute and more and more resembles one of the SE crater paroxysms, only that it is from Bocca Nuova. It will be interesting to read Boris' report tomorrow.

Paroxsym from Bocca Nuova (?)

Activity is strongly increasing. Tremor has started a steep rise, typical for a paroxysm. Vigorous strombolian seems to have started from Bocca Nuova. You can check this live at: webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Etna. Weak glow is visible from Bocca Nuova, indicating that probably small strombolian eruptions have resumed at the eastern vent.
Weak strombolian activity took place last night at the New SE crater, accompanied by slightly increased tremor.
At the moment, dilute ash/gas venting is sometimes visible from the crater, but tremor has dropped.
Activity has dropped again abruptly (and so the tremor signal).
A new eruptive phase has started at Bocca Nuova. Since this morning (28 Jan), small ash emissions have been observed and now at night, glow can be seen. The tremor signal has been rising as well. The volcano, now beautifully covered in snow, has gradually quieted (for now) after the recent short episodes of activity from Bocca Nuova and New SE crater.

Phase of strombolian activity in New SE crater

After two days of silence, a new eruptive phase with strombolian activity has begun overnight from the New SE crater. At the moment, it seems already to be ending, judging from the tremor signal.
Snow-covered Etna has remained quiet during the past few days. Tremor is currently low.
What was probably a short eruptive phase yesterday, possibly at the New SE crater, has ended already.
Judging from the tremor signal, another eruptive phase (or miniparoxysm) is in the making right now.
A smaller one occurred yesterday evening.

Small paroxysm on the evening of 16 Jan

Another brief, but probably strong eruptive phase - a small paroxysm - occurred between last evening and midnight at one of the summit craters, most likely Bocca Nuova. Glow could be seen from webcams in the evening, but the summit area was covered in clouds. The event is also visible as a spike in the tremor amplitude.

Eruptive phase ended

As suspected, the strombolian activity inside Bocca Nuova has ended abruptly yesterday. An SO2 plume from the activity before is still drifting over southern Italy in the latest NOAA satellite image.
Strombolian activity continued throughout last night, with some ejections of lava bombs reaching heights above the rim of Bocca Nuova.
However, the tremor signal has dropped sharply today, and most likely, the activity in the crater has stopped for now.
Strombolian activity continued throughout last night, with some ejections of lava bombs reaching heights above the rim of Bocca Nuova.
However, the tremor signal has dropped sharply today, and most likely, the activity in the crater has stopped for now.
Weak strombolian activity and a small intra-crater lava flow inside Bocca Nuova's eastern pit could be seen on a webcam image this night. Tremor remains elevated.

New strombolian activity in Bocca Nuova

This night at around 1:00 am local time, eruptive activity, most likely strombolian eruptions from the eastern vent, resumed in the Bocca Nuova, accompanied by a rise in tremor. Images indicate that the activity gradually increased until about 3:15 and the stabilized.
Occasional ash emissions have been observed recently from the New SE crater. Will there be more paroxysms as during 2011-April 2012? No one knows.

Earthquake swarm in the NW sector of Etna

A swarm of earthquakes has started in the NW sector of the volcano. The largest quake was a felt M4.1 earthquake at 20 km depth.
Strombolian activity has resumed at the New SE crater as well. Tremor began rising on 20 November. On the night of 21 November, incandescence was seen in Etna's New Southeast crater. Incandescence was last observed from the crater in April 2012.
Weak strombolian activity from the Bocca Nuova has been observed again last night. This was accompanied by a slight increase in tremor.
A faint red glow is sometimes visible from the summit craters, probably Bocca Nuova, where some minor activity might be going on, and a fumarole on top of the SE crater is glowing. Tremor is at very low levels, though.
Tremor is currently low. The peak over the weekend corresponded to strong explosions, almost small fountains and the effusion of a lava flow inside Bocca Nuova, i.e. a mini paroxysm.
The tremor signal showed a strong increase during the night, suggesting elevated activity probably at Bocca Nuova.
A new lava flow has began to effuse from the new scoria cone in the Bocca Nuova on 5 October.
As webcam images show, some weak strombolian activity goes on at Bocca Nuova.
As reported via www.vulkane.net, a mountain guide visited Bocca Nuova and found that the intracrater cone from the summer acivity has collapsed. The current weak explosive activity is located deep within the vent and only few incandescent bombs reach the surface.

New strombolian activity at the Bocca Nuova

As the Facebook group Volcanoes and Volcanism detected, there is probably new eruptive activity from Etna: A screenshot of the Etna livecam shows red glow from the Bocca Nuova crater last night. This is probably due to new strombolian activity in the eastern crater of the Bocca Nuova. Between July and mid-August, weak to vigorous activity (photos) there built a new small cinder cone.

SO2 emissions visible on satellite data

Etna is one of the most productive volcanoes in the world when it comes to SO2 output. Although no significant activity is taking place at the summit craters, there is a SO2 plume visible on NOAA's satellite images yesterday, suggesting that fresh magma is at least not far from the surface.

Observations from summit crater

During a visit to the summit crater this afternoon, we could hear deep-seated explosion sounds at intervals of few minutes from the Voragine pit crater, suggesting that some activity is going on deep (several 100 m) within its conduit. Sporadic explosive activity from adjacent Bocca Buova ceased about a week ago according to the Etna mountain guides.
Strong degassing with very light ash content is seen from the Bocca Nuova and the pit crater located between the old and new SE crater, the site of infrequent ash emissions.

Ash emissions from SE crater

Around 13:17 local time, an ash emission episode that lasted about 5 minutes from a vent between the two main vents of the SE crater was observed. It consisted of small explosions at intervals of about 10 seconds.
No further ash emissions have been observed since, and it is the first time since a similar event on 27 August. (Source: etnawalk)

2.0 earthquake at 6 km depth under Valle del Bove

Some interesting earthquake activity is going on at Etna. A 2.0 quake occurred this morning at 11:26 local time about 6 km ESE from the summit under the Valle del Bove.
A cluster of earthquakes (magnitudes 1-2) at shallow depth occurred yesterday a few km east of the summit region under Valle del Bove. Check www.volcanodiscovery.com/etna-earthquakes.html
Not much activity seems to be happening at Etna, in particular in the Bocca Nuova summit crater.
Short pulses of increasing tremor have reappeared over the past days, but were not sustained, perhaps corresponding to short phases of strombolian activity.

Ash emissions from Bocca Nuova

A picture taken yesterday shows and ash plume rising from Bocca Nuova, indicating that explosive activity continue, at least intermittently inside the Bocca Nuova summit crater.

Tremor still low

Tremor has remained low over the past week, and activity inside the Bocca Nuova remains weak and sporadic.
Ash-rich strombolian explosions are spotted from Bocca Nuova.
The tremor signal has stayed calm, but weak strombolian activity or spattering from the vent inside the Bocca Nuova is probably continuing. Interestingly, a few relatively large quakes (around M3) have occurred on the NE flank near (or on?) the Pernicana fault this morning and it will be interesting to monitor the NE rift zone in the coming months.
Nice glow could be seen during the night from Bocca Nuova suggesting increased strombolian activity there. The elevated activity corresponded to a peak in tremor as well.
Tremor continues to be low and no glow at night is currently visible from Bocca Nuova.
Tremor is low this morning and probably, explosive activity in the Bocca Nuova crater is weak as well. The SO2 plume is hanging over the summit area during these days of heat wave.
During the past night, activity at Etna's Bocca Nuova had apparently increased again, with the magma level inside the eastern vent rising again. There was glow visible on webcams and a peak in tremor.

Ash-rich strombolian eruptions from Bocca Nuova

Since Sunday morning, frequent ash emissions have been observed from Bocca Nuova. These are produced by ash venting and strombolian explosions from the cone in the eastern pit crater. During observations last night (5 Aug), strombolian activity was fluctuating between stronger and weaker phases on a roughly hourly rhythm.
During more intense phases, the activity consisted in frequent explosions at intervals of 1-2 minutes, sometimes powerful enough to eject bombs to 100-200 m height and ejecting bombs all over the crater terrace, and accompanied by detonation sounds. When activity was lower, it consisted mostly in silent ash venting events with only few, if any, incandescent scoria reaching the surface.
Compared to the near continuous spattering and strong strombolian explosions observed on Friday evening (corresponding to a high in tremor signal), the magma column inside the conduit must have dropped. This also correlates with a decrease of tremor to relatively low levels at the moment.

Increase in strombolian activity in Bocca Nuova and strong degassing from NSEC

Near-continuous strombolian activity at the eastern vent inside the Bocca Nuova crater has intensified last night, strong bursts of exploding liquid lava bubbles that were throwing bombs to more than 100-150 m height, occasionally higher than the rim of the crater, although no bombs were observed falling outside the crater rim.
At around 20:30, a series of small lava flows started to issue from the western base of the new cone and spread around the western bottom of the deep pit crater. The increase of activity corresponds well with a significant increase in tremor recorded by INGV.
The New SE crater (site of most activity during the past years, including the spectacular paroxysms of 2011-2012) has been showing very intense degassing and producing a large visible bluish SO2 plume. This suggests that magma in its conduit is not far from the surface. However, no explosions have occurred from this crater since the last paroxysm on 24 April.
The strombolian activity in Bocca Nuova continues and the intracrater cone slowly grows. At the moment, the tremor is slowly rising, suggesting an increase in activity.
Mild strombolian activity from an intracrater vent inside Bocca Nuova crater continues at fluctuating intensity. Last night, there were frequent explosions was accompanied by a relatively strong tremor signal and well visible on webcams.
The activity which now has been going on for about a month is slowly buiding a new spatter cone inside the SE pit of Bocca Nuova. This activity is similar to a long period of persistant summit activity observed during much of 1995-97.
The sporadic strombolian activity continues inside the Bocca Nuova crater.

Weak strombolian activity in Bocca Nuova

A phase of weak strombolian activity occurred from a vent inside Bocca Nuova crater during the first half of the past weak, accompanied by an increased tremor. This is similar to a phase of activity last year in July, when Bocca Nuova displayed strombolian explosions for about 2 weeks in July 2011.

Unrest at Etna - new paroxysm soon or not?

More than 2 months have passed since the last SE crater paroxysm and Etna has been very quiet lately. Last night, the tremor signal started to rise sharply, as typical during the onsets of the past paroxysm, but then dropped again, took another rise, and dropped back again.

Slowly increasing tremor

Etna volcano has been quiet over the past days, but the tremor has a slowly increasing trend, similar to the periods preceding some of the past paroxysms. The rhythm of these eruptions has once again changed.

Small explosion at Bocca Nuova

This morning at 10:52 local time, a small explosion occurred inside the main crater of the Bocca Nuova crater. It produced an steam and ash cloud containing fine-grained lithic ash rising a few 100 m above the crater rim. In the following hours, several smaller explosive events followed but could not be seen and were only indicated by seismic signals.
Almost a year ago, a similar series of explosions started at Bocca Nuova and increased to a phase of strombolian activity from a vent inside Bocca Nuova. This activity lasted about 2 weeks in July.

False alarm?

After rising initially, tremor has suddenly dropped again. It now looks that it was a "false alarm", and that the next paroxysm might have to be waited for more...

26th paroxysm seems to have started

Since about 2 hours ago, tremor from Etna has started to rise steeply, suggesting that the next (26th) paroxysm of the New SE crater is probably imminent. At the moment, visible observations are difficult due to cloud cover, but it could be expected that there is some strombolian activity right now from the crater.
If the new paroxysm occurs today, it would mean that for the 3rd time, the exact same interval between these eruptions has passed (11.5 days).
Since yesterday, Etna has been calm again and no more strombolian activity has been observed at the New SE Crater, and tremor is low again. The next paroxysm might not be imminent.

New strombolian activity from New SE crater

Since last night (28 April), new strombolian activity has been observed from Etna's New SE crater. With all likelihood, this announces another paroxysm to occur in the next few days. This would then be the 26th since 2011 when the series of eruptions began, or the 7th in 2012.