Etna volcano update: 17th paroxysm of Etna - spectacular video

The latest lava fountain episode or paroxysm, counting number 17 since 16 Feb 2021, has ended. Volcanic activity at the New SE crater gradually and very slowly declined since the afternoon to finally ceased at some point in the late (?) evening.
This eruptive episode had been very remarkable, even for Etna standards, and for several reasons:
First, while its intensity at peak phase may not have quite reached the same values as many of the previous 16 episodes since mid February, it lasted significantly longer than any other, with about 12 hours of lava fountaining, and a very long build-up and declining phases, making the whole episode lasting almost two days!
Secondly, the opening of a new effusive vent at the southern base of the cone in the morning of 31 March also marked a significantly different behavior than observed previously. As to its causes, we can only speculate that the uppermost parts of the conduit system had become sufficiently unstable by now, so that when pressure in the upper conduit increased, it opened a fracture at a lower point, at the southern base of the cone, and allowed some of the magma to find an easier there.
This would explain why the intensity of the eruption later at the summit vent was a bit lower,- some of the magma was "diverted" just before reaching the summit.

Local Etna specialist filmmaker Michele Mammino took some of the most remarkable videos of this eruption, in particular close-up shots of the new fissure vent that was active at the southern base of the New SE crater. Enjoy:


It is worth mentioning that during the whole time of the eruptive phase at the New SE crater, the other summit vents continued their intermittent mild strombolian activity.