Etna volcano - eruption update May 2014 - Jan 2015

Activity resumes at Etna's New SE crater

After almost two months of apparent calm new activity resumes on Etna: Occasional weak explosions occur at the NSEC barely visible from thermal webcam images.

Activity ceases at New SE crater

Effusive / explosive activity from the New SE crater gradually declined and ceased over the weekend. The latest eruptive episode is now over.

Intense strombolian activity and lava flows from New SE crater

Strong strombolian explosions in rapid succession and lava effusion continue from the New SE crater with little variation during the past days. An ash plume is rising a few 100 m. Tremor has dropped a bit yesterday, but remains elevated.
Whether Etna is heading towards a true paroxysm with lava fountains is unclear, but if the new phase of activity is similar to the previous episodes, it might continue the same type of activity at fluctuating levels for a while and then fade.
The lava flow's main branch, issued from a fissure vent at the upper eastern rim of the NSEC, is headed to the northeast and has now a length of approx. 2 km. Its wide active front has reached the base of the Valle del Bove. Two secondary arms divide from the main flow and are flowing more to the east towards the break in slope into the Valle del Bove east of the NSEC (s. thermal image).

This new activity at the New SE crater had started on 9 August and gradually intensified until Monday, then dropped a bit and has been stagnating since.
Along with the appearance of lava at the NSEC, the explosive-effusive activity from the vents at the eastern base of the NE crater, which had continued through the past weeks, gradually waned and ceased on 10 or 11 Aug.
Decreasing tremor and weakening thermal signals suggest that the explosive / effusive activity from the vents at the eastern foot of the NE crater still continues, but at reduced rate. At least one lava flow seems to be still active.

Continuing strombolian activity and lava flows

No significant changes have occurred at the volcano recently. Lava continues to arrive at the vent(s) at the eastern base of the NE crater, where strombolian activity is building up a complex cone and several small lava flows are spreading towards the Valle del Bove.
A small collapse occurred on 1 August, partially destroying the cone that had been built above the 25 July vent.
Tremor reflecting the explosive activity there remains elevated, with strong fluctuations, but an overall decreasing trend.
The following video by Boris Behncke shows the activity on 2 August:

Opening of a new vent at E base of North-East Crater

A new vent opened yesterday morning at 11:14 local time.
It is located about 150-200 metres north of the two previous vents at the eastern base of the NE crater.
Its activity is characterized by small strombolian explosions while a lava flow continues to be weakly alimented from one of the two other vents
In the meantime sporadic emissions of hot gas sometimes associated with ash emissions continue from the New SE crater .
The small effusive eruption continues with little variation. The northern branch of the lava flow slowly advances towards the Valle del Bove. Tremor fluctuates at moderately elevated levels.

Continuing lava flows, growing spatter cones

No significant variations in activity have occurred during the past days. Small lava flows are being fed by the new fissure vent at the eastern base of the NE crater. At the vent, this activity is accompanied by spattering, sometimes resembling strombolian-type explosions with ejections up to approx. 100 m in height.
2 spatter cones have been growing at the vents. They have been called "hornitos", although this term strictly spoken refers to smaller chimney-like structures that can form on top of skylights above lava tubes, where degassing jets throw out small amounts of lava to pile up to form them.
Starting from around 7 July, the lava flow has formed a second branch further to the north. Its furthest flow front has reached a length of approx. 1.5 km.
Tremor remains stable at slightly elevated levels.
no significant changes: lava continues to effuse from the new fissure vent at the eastern base of the NE crater. A small hornito has grown at the vent. Tremor continues to climb slowly. Emanuela visited the active lava flows yesterday:

Continuing lava flows from new fissure.

The lava flow continues to advance slowly from the new fissure vent into the Valle del Leone. Tremor has been rising gradually overall, but is still low.
The following time-lapse from 14:00 local time Saturday until now shows the arrival of the new dike causing the new fissure vent to open and the advance of the lava flow:

New effusive vent at E base of North-East Crater

A new effusive vent opened yesterday afternoon on the eastern base of the North-East crater feeding a small lava flow.

Weak activity continues at the New SE crater

Occasional weak explosions continue at the New SE crater. The volcanic tremor signal is still low.

Eruption ends

The latest eruptive episode at the New SE crater, which again grew a few meters during this time, is now over. The lava flow is no longer active and there are no (or only very weak and sporadic) explosions at the crater itself. Tremor has descended back to low levels.
Civil protection reacts "fast": access has now been limited to 2500 m.
Activity and tremor have further decreased - it seems that the latest eruptive (explosive-effusive) phase at the New SE crater is coming to an end.
A series of photos taken during 15-16 June has been posted here.
This morning, weak strombolian activity and lava effusion were still going on. Marco Fulle who is still on location took this picture of the scene complete with a rare steam ring.

Activity decreases

Activity continues with little changes, at fluctuating and overall slowly decreasing intensity, reflected also by the tremor signal. Last evening, liquid lava spattering from the central vent of the New SE crater occurred at rapid succession reaching heights of 50-150 m and often throwing incandescent material to the upper outer flanks of the cone.
Lava flows continued to descend through the channel on the eastern side of the cone and spread into several channels on the upper half of the Valle del Bove wall, but not extending beyond the fronts emplaced during yesterday night.
The situation this morning is similar, but the spattering at the summit has decreased.

Lava flows into Valle del Bove

Lava effusion and pulsating low lava fountains continued from the New SE crater throughout the night and today. Tremor remains at fluctuating elevated levels but with a now slightly decreasing trend. The lava flows have descended the western slope into the Valle del Bove where they spread into several broad fronts.

Paroxysm from New SE crater ?

A violent phase of explosive / effusive activity began over night. Strombolian activity at the New SE crater and volcanic tremor started to increase last evening. This increase continued throughout the night and this morning,- great luck for those on our current tour to Stromboli - Vulcano and Etna.
At the moment, tremor is currently stagnating, and it is not clear whether it will culminate in a true paroxysm (phase of lava fountaining).
Near-continuous explosions from the several vents at the summit of the NSEC occur in rapid succession and eject glowing spatter to heights of 100-200 m during in what could be described as pulsating lava fountains. A vent at the eastern part of the summit occasionally ejects dark jets of ash and brown ash plumes rise from time to time from the northeastern rim of the crater, presumably from collapse events.
Unfortunately, heavy cloud cover , approx. 10 cm of fresh hail and thunderstorm activity prevented detailed observations during most of the early afternoon.
Starting from early this morning, several lava flow headed slowly towards the Valle del Bove rim started to descend from the summit through the valley on the SE side of the crater.
No changes in activity have occurred. Sporadic small strombolian explosions continue from the summit crater of the New SE crater. Tremor is low.

Activity continues at the New SE crater

Mild strombolian activity is still continuing at the New SE crater.
A short sequence of more energetic seismo-volcanic events occurred this morning most probably at Bocca Nuova crater.
It wasn't visible on webcams but only on the seismic signal.
Tremor is currently low.

Ash emissions from the New SE crater and partial collapse on its eastern flank

Glow and ash emissions continue to be observed at the summit vent of the New SE crater. The intensity of this still weak activity slowly increased this morning with 5-10 small explosions per hour.
A small event this afternoon at 13:42 (local time) from the New SE crater produced a reddish-brown ash plume generated by partial collapse on the upper part of the eastern flank of the cone.

Continuing mild strombolian activity at NSEC

No particular changes have occurred recently. Very sporadic and weak strombolian explosions continue at the summit vent of the New SE crater. Bocca Nuova also continues to produce sporadic ash emissions.

Activity decreases

Activity has decreased. No new ash emissions from the Bocca Nuova could be noticed on webcam images and the strombolian activity at the New SE crater, although still present, has weakened and become much more sporadic as well.

Ash emissions from Bocca Nuova and intermittent strombolian activity at New SE crater

Although tremor dropped significantly yesterday evening, mild strombolian activity from the New SE crater continued throughout the night. This morning, new ash emissions from the Bocca Nuova occurred again. Whether this announces a new phase of (different) activity will have to be seen...
Video from this night's activity:

Weak strombolian activity continues with little variation from the New SE crater. A slightly increasing trend of tremor amplitude can be observed over the past days.
Near-continuous weak strombolian activity is visible from the New SE crater. Tremor is currently low.
Sporadic small explosions continue at the New SE crater sometimes with pyroclastic material ejected outside the crater.
In April the seismic tremor was characterized by regular cyclic increases of amplitude forming evident stripes on seismograms. This phenomenon called "banded tremor" gradually became less evident and seems ended on 2 May coincident with a strong seismo-volcanic event occurred most probably at the Bocca Nuova crater.
A seismo-volcanic event occurred this night at 23:00 (local time) most probably from the Bocca Nuova crater. It wasn't visible on webcams but only on the seismic tremor and infrasound signals.