Mount Etna, Europe’s largest and most active volcano, erupted overnight in Sicily, sending thick columns of smoke and ash into the sky and triggering panic among tourists.
Dramatic footage shared on social media showed people running down the mountainside as dense black smoke billowed above.
The eruption began at around 3:50am local time, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
The institute reported the volcano was undergoing “strong strombolian explosions… of growing intensity.”
“Over the past few hours, the falling of a little thin ash has been flagged in the Piano Vetore area,” the INGV stated.
Prior to the eruption, volcanic tremors began around 10pm and peaked shortly before 1am, according to the Volcanic Discovery website.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Toulouse issued a red aviation alert, warning that the ash plume had reached an altitude of about 6,400 metres.
At around 11:30am local time, INGV cameras recorded a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving surge of hot gas, ash, and volcanic rock.
According to the institute, the flow was “probably produced by a collapse of material from the northern flank of the South-East Crater.”
The pyroclastic material did not extend beyond the edge of the Valle del Leone.
The INGV also reported that explosive activity from the Southeast Crater had intensified into a lava fountain.
Mount Etna’s height regularly changes due to frequent eruptions. In September, INGV stated that the Voragine crater reached a new height of 3,403 metres.
Before that, the South East Crater had been the highest since 2021, after surpassing the North East Crater’s record from the 1970s.
( The Independent)
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