It has been going on for 5 months but only today it is really showing itself. The eruption taking place inside the Central crater of Etna has something fascinating and anomalous. In fact, this eruption started inside the hole called Voragine, by a small pit crater that – from September – has been emitting lava fountains and also a flow.
The lava flow pours in spectacular fire falls beyond the edge of the Voragine down where was once the crater of the Bocca Nuova (capped during one of the last paroxysms) . Therefore, so far it has been possible to admire it only by air flight, or by bravely going up to the edge of the craters – as shown
photo by F.Zuccarello —the photo above is by B. Behncke
in the photo on the side, by Fabrizio Zuccarello.
It is not yet known what evolution will follow this new eruptive event. In five months, however, the small pit crater inside the Voragine has grown and formed yet another crater cone. A cone that in about twenty meters could exceed the maximum height of Etna, breaking a new record. While waiting to understand what the future holds, we can not help but admire the sporadic lava fountains emitted by the Voragine. Fountains visible only from the south-western side of the volcano, as the view from the east side is covered by the bulk of the South East.
(photo by Fabrizio Zuccarello and Boris Behncke)