[Rome-Catania, 28 February 2021]
On the last day of February, Etna produced a new spectacular paroxysmal event at the Southeast Crater, the seventh in the sequence that began on February 16th.
Already in the early hours of the morning of February 28, in fact, a new lava fountain activity, with ash emission, was recorded by the Operations Room of the Etna Observatory of the INGV in Catania. The very first and isolated explosion, which marked the beginning of this new eruptive episode, took place at 07:55.
From that moment on, there was a very rapid evolution of events. The Strombolian activity, characterized by a continuous jet as early as about 8:30, was mainly concentrated in two vents and initially reached a height of about 300 m.
The volcanic tremor, which up to that moment had remained at a medium level, reached high values after the start of the lava fountain.
At its peak, volcanic activity produced large lava fountains that covered the entire cone of Southeast Crater, with lava flows and pyroclastic flows lasting about half an hour.
Subsequently, at 09:20 in the morning, a sudden and sudden decrease in tremor was observed, down to medium-low values. The source of the tremor, however, persisted in the area of the Southeast Crater at a depth of about 2600 m above sea level until the early hours of the afternoon, when it began to move and deepen below the craters central.
This paroxysm was characterized by a notable intensity but a short duration: the activity of high lava fountains lasted about half an hour, causing an intense fallout of lapilli along the foothills that goes from Zafferana, Milo, Fornazzo up to in Giarre, reaching dimensions of up to 6 cm just upstream of Fornazzo. In fact, at 9:33 am, the fountaining at the South-East Crater stopped almost suddenly, within about a minute, while the lava flow towards Valle del Bove remained active.
Also on this occasion, teams from the INGV of the OE of Catania and Rome went on site to carry out real-time measurements on the lava fountain and monitor the eruptive event. As in past events, the observations of the lava fountains involved the use of high-speed thermal cameras and measurements of the chemical composition of the gases emitted using the infrared remote sensing technique.
INGV promptly disseminates all information on Etna's paroxysms on INGV's social channels. In particular, the INGVVulcani channels of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are continuously updated also with the press releases constantly issued by the INGV Etna Observatory and with significant photos and images of the phenomena.