Photos of the last eruption of the Etna volcano: why it amazes even the experts

Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe, has amazed even experienced volcanologists in recent days with spectacular lava jets that light up the Sicilian sky every night.

The last nighttime eruption died out around 9:00 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, according to the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

For over a week, Etna regularly rotates lava, ash and volcanic rocks. The neighboring airport of Catania temporarily closed, and residents of the city of Pedara They said it looked like it was raining rocks as a thick layer of ash blanketed the city.

The south-eastern crater, the most active of the four that the volcano has, is still the main protagonist: in this crater the strombolian activity, a volcanism characterized by explosive eruptions separated by periods of calm, continues to put on the biggest show. Last night, the high lava springs, known as the Paroxysm, reached 1,000 meters in height and the lava poured almost completely into the valley.

The volcanologist Boris Behncke, From the Etna Observation Center of the National Institute, he followed the latest events with amazement. Writing on the institute’s website this week, he said that after “giving us moments of suspense” over the previous nights, Etna finally erupted in a way that “those of us who have worked on it for decades have seldom seen.”

Referring to the nocturnal activity, he tweeted on Tuesday: “Did I say the #Etna climax of February 20 and 21 was ‘incredibly powerful’?” Well, his successor, on the night of February 22-23, was MUCH more powerful. “

Until, no damage or injury has been reported.

In the previous days, the eruptions were even photographed from space. An infrared image of the volcano, taken on February 18 from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite space, showed a large river of lava in bright red.

The eruptions of the The 3,330-meter volcano has never stopped in recent months. The novelty is that they are currently activate the four summit craters, something that had not happened since the years 1998-1999.

An earlier sight dates back to Christmas Eve and mid-January, when an explosive phase was recorded with lava ash emitted from the southeast crater. The last major eruption, which threatened the small town of Linguaglossa, dates back to 2002.

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