etnaboris
Work in progress
In the past couple of weeks, at intervals of 5-6 days, the New Southeast Crater at the summit of Mount Etna has produced spectacular eruptive episodes, so-called "paroxysms", the latest during the night of 5-6 August 2011. That means, six days have passed since then. And - lo and behold, today, 11 August 2011, this crater is once more showing signs of life. Throughout the day, small ash emissions have occurred from the crater, first growing more and more frequent, then stopping, then resuming. On the late afternoon, a thermal monitoring camera of the INGV-Catania began to show hot material in some of the emissions.
When I drove home from work at the INGV-Catania on the evening of 11 August 2011, the ash emisssions were quite frequent, one every two or three minutes. I stopped several times along the road to take photographs - this is one of them, taken close to my home village Trecastagni at about 20 h local time (= GMT +2). A small ash plume is seen rising about 50 m above the crater, contrasting against the gas plumes from the nearby Northeast Crater and Bocca Nuova, illuminated by the setting sun.
As night fell, small Strombolian explosions became visible at the New Southeast Crater. However, as of 22.30 h on 11 August, the volcanic tremor recorded by the summit seismic stations of the INGV-Catania remained low. This is typical, and only once the tremor amplitude begins to rise significantly, chances increase that a new paroxysm will occur within the next few hours. Finally, once lava starts to overflow the rim of the crater, we can be certain that the new paroxysm is imminent. As long as we do not see the tremor amplitude rise and there is no lava overflow, Etna may still step back and delay the new paroxysm by hours, maybe a day, as happened on 8-9 and 30 July.
Is this the countdown to the 10th paroxysm of this year?
Note added 12 August, 09 h local time (GMT +2): activity at the New Southeast Crater is increasing, and so is the volcanic tremor amplitude. It seems that the 10th paroxysmal episode of this year will occur within the next few hours - unless the Big Lady has second thoughts about it ... stay tuned for photos and descriptions from the field later today as we are preparing to go up and watch things from close distance
Work in progress
In the past couple of weeks, at intervals of 5-6 days, the New Southeast Crater at the summit of Mount Etna has produced spectacular eruptive episodes, so-called "paroxysms", the latest during the night of 5-6 August 2011. That means, six days have passed since then. And - lo and behold, today, 11 August 2011, this crater is once more showing signs of life. Throughout the day, small ash emissions have occurred from the crater, first growing more and more frequent, then stopping, then resuming. On the late afternoon, a thermal monitoring camera of the INGV-Catania began to show hot material in some of the emissions.
When I drove home from work at the INGV-Catania on the evening of 11 August 2011, the ash emisssions were quite frequent, one every two or three minutes. I stopped several times along the road to take photographs - this is one of them, taken close to my home village Trecastagni at about 20 h local time (= GMT +2). A small ash plume is seen rising about 50 m above the crater, contrasting against the gas plumes from the nearby Northeast Crater and Bocca Nuova, illuminated by the setting sun.
As night fell, small Strombolian explosions became visible at the New Southeast Crater. However, as of 22.30 h on 11 August, the volcanic tremor recorded by the summit seismic stations of the INGV-Catania remained low. This is typical, and only once the tremor amplitude begins to rise significantly, chances increase that a new paroxysm will occur within the next few hours. Finally, once lava starts to overflow the rim of the crater, we can be certain that the new paroxysm is imminent. As long as we do not see the tremor amplitude rise and there is no lava overflow, Etna may still step back and delay the new paroxysm by hours, maybe a day, as happened on 8-9 and 30 July.
Is this the countdown to the 10th paroxysm of this year?
Note added 12 August, 09 h local time (GMT +2): activity at the New Southeast Crater is increasing, and so is the volcanic tremor amplitude. It seems that the 10th paroxysmal episode of this year will occur within the next few hours - unless the Big Lady has second thoughts about it ... stay tuned for photos and descriptions from the field later today as we are preparing to go up and watch things from close distance