Etna is erupting again. The already high active volcano of the Euro-Asian plate offers the inhabitants of Catania and its Province a unique show of its kind and some concern.
At five months from the Christmas eruption, two important sub-terminal fractures have opened at the base of the Southeast crater and on the northeastern flank of the New Southeast crater. They emerge from both two lava flows which, however, according to volcanologists at the moment would be underpowered.
The tremor of the internal magmatic ducts has reached medium-high values and is currently decreasing.
"We are at the start of a new eruptive phase of Etna – explains the director of Ingv of Catania, Eugenio Privitera – which could end soon or last for months. The phenomena are all confined to the summit area of the volcano and do not pose a danger to population centers and people, but the flow of tourists in the area will need to be controlled for their safety".
The phenomenon is accompanied by Strombolian activity from the main craters, but at the moment there is none no consequences on the Catania airport, which remains fully operational, given the absence of volcanic ash emissions.
As early as yesterday evening, May 29, the instruments of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology had detected an increase in the amplitude of the tremor, the microseismic activity which denounces the ascent of magma in the ducts of the craters.
The actual eruption instead began at 5,30 this morning, when lava started to flow out of the fractures under the New South East crater.
The eruption has created no small alarm among the displaced persons of Zafferana Etnea, the country that last December 26 was hit by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake and that in the afternoon of 29 May it was subjected to another quake of magnitude 2.8. The news is confirmed by the Ingv of Catania. The epicenter was located one kilometer west of Zafferana.
