Etna, the most active volcano in Europe, is in the state of “prealert” due to the “high probability” of new eruptions after the last eruptive episode that began last Sunday and forced the closure of the international airport of Catania (Sicily, southern Italy).
The Civil Protection department of the Sicilian region issued a bulletin last night raising the alarm level from “attention” to “pre-alert”, after the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) warned of “wide fluctuations” in the values of the average amplitude of the volcanic tremor in the last 24 hours.
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“The mayors of the summit municipalities and the other authorities are invited to activate the measures (…) with particular reference to the prohibition of access to the affected areas” and “keep informed about the evolution of the current phenomena” , is indicated in the Civil Protection communication.
The alert bulletin for civil aviation has gone from green to yellow, but at the moment it does not affect the operation of the Catania airport, which is still operational, after the ashes thrown by Etna last Sunday forced it to close throughout this Monday, generating chaos for travelers in the middle of the tourist season.
The mayors of the summit municipalities and other authorities are invited to activate the measures
According to the INGV, in the last hours the volcanic oscillations have gained “more amplitude” and “at some moments the average amplitude of the tremor reached the range of high values”, although at present it is “within the average values”.
“The sources of the volcanic tremor affected a large part of the summit area, between the Southeast Crater and an area to the east of the central craters and the affected depths cover a wide interval of the crust, between 1,700 and 2,900 meters above sea level,” detailed the INGV.
Etna reactivated its activity last Sunday, when it “turned into a lava fountain“, producing an eruptive cloud dispersed by the southerly winds, as well as a deflection of the lava flow to the south of the crater at an altitude of 2,800 meters.
The INGV explained that these eruptive episodes are a typical phenomenon of the recent activity of Etna and usually cover the Sicilian cities around it with ash. The last one had taken place in May.
From 1977 to the present there have been hundreds of episodes similar to the current one, including the exceptional sequence of 66 tremors between January and August 2000 and about 50 between 2011 and 2013.
EFE
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