Etna showing signs of new eruptions?

hahaha Erik you must have been following my postings in real-time ... I was about to submit a note about these developments at Etna to your blog.
For the moment it's calmed down but usually earthquakes and ground fracturing such as on 2-3 April on Etna's northeast flank are followed, within max a few months by a new flank eruption. The events of today seem to confirm that the volcano is restless. I'll keep you informed ...

Thanks Boris, be sure to keep us informed! Nothing like having someone on the scene to report on any eruption.

Looks like steam from nearby snow got melted there. It might be sings that things are getting hot there.

Eruption in 24 to 180 hours time perhaps in that area ? Only time is going to tell us for sure what happens.

Great stuff you two! One day I'd love you to show us the pattern of all those fault systems Boris. They look really complex and I amazed to see such surface activity. Is this caused by inflation or by normal faulting? Anywhere else and the alarm bells would be ringing and the press would be all over it (one reason why I love Italy, I guess, is their charming fatalism ;-)).

Is there any evident pattern to the faulting? If Etna erupts, please tell it to wait until the Pfingsten holidays for a I have a chance of seeing it then!

I haven't booked my annual trip to Scotland yet, so I might just go to Sicily instead if an eruption is happening over there. Beginning of May please ^_^ !

@Gijs: Book one to Iceland - the volcano is active there :-)

According to photos and discussions on ATS Etna has erupted gas and ash today...

Helen - It sure did, at least according to Boris (and he should know), but it wasn't new magma being erupted. Instead it was pulverized pieces of rock in an old conduit - pretty common at volcanoes like Etna.

Any new vents or is it the usual suspects?

OK,,,,, but not too close, Boris.
(if You like parenthood; You are going to Love grandparenthood)
Best!motsfo

Looking at your old website, Boris, and I have to say, kudos. Lots of good info! :)

Would it be possible to list all publicly available webcams and data for My.Etna, like happened for Eyjafjallajokull? They help promoting interesting discussions.

http://www.vulcanoetna.com/en_etna_cam.php

Enjoy the views!

@Henrik There are two other Etna-webcam http://www.guide-etna.com/webcam/ which are very nice. One is showing the flank above Valle del Bove (Cam 1), so if there occurs a flank eruption, it will might catch it and Cam 3, which is located a bit higher showing the summit area (but below the summit). I love them: They deliver the big picture. Unfortunately it is a foggy day today like at Fimmvörduhals too.

For the moment, all is quiet again. The activity yesterday was an ash emission and/or collapse from the vent on the eastern flank of the Southeast Crater (one of Etna's four summit craters), which has been the focus of all activity at the summit since 2007.

The web site of the Hotel Corsaro (who are good friends of mine) has an updated list of all current Etna webcams:

http://www.hotelcorsaro.it/etna-webcams/?lan=english

They have also posted two spectacular photos of yesterday's ash emission on the main page http://www.hotelcorsaro.it/

Some information (in Italian) is available at the INGV web site http://www.ct.ingv.it

The once I know are in the list at http://www.stromboli.org/livecam_europe.php#italy available. If one is missing, let me know.

Here are the links where you can see at least a little bit of the seismic activity that is being recorded at Etna - it's a very reduced choice, but better than nothing.

This is the seismic signal recorded by the seismic station "Serra Pizzuta Calvarina" which is on the south-southeast flank of Etna, at a distance of approximately 7 km from the summit

http://193.206.223.22/Etna2007/SegSismici.asp?Staz=ESPC_HHZ_IT&Pos=6

Volcanic tremor recorded at two seismic stations near the summit of Etna (EBEL - Belvedere, about 1 km southeast of the Southeast Crater, and ECPN - Caldera del Piano, about 1.5 km west-southwest of the Southeast Crater)

http://www.ct.ingv.it/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=…

As you will see in this moment (about 18.30 h GMT on 9 April 2010) the situation is relatively quiet, but this might be only temporary. Many in our institute are quite convinced that a new eruption is days to weeks away.

Let's wait and see what Big Mama Etna has in store for us...

I would truly love to see something like 2000-2001 happening there... EXTREME summit activity, high eruptive columns, large lava fountains, abundant ash emissions, all of this in an unpopulated area so virtually no harm done... and a great show for everybody..

If such a thing happens, I'm gonna head straight away to Sicily to watch this....

I've had Boris's Etna Site bookmarked since the SEC paroxysms of the late 90's. Still one of the definitive Earth Science sites on the web!

Sorry about the redundant 's'.
http://boris.vulcanoetna.it/SEC95_99.html

Thanks for the handy seismometer links, Boris. The southern flank is exactly the one I was hoping to see, for it is the proposed location of crustal spreading as a possible source of the new type eruption activity and change in magma geochemical characteristics.

Given the frequency of eruptions at Etna, which is certainly the most active volcano in Europe and among the most active in the world for the past several hundreds years, it does seem probable that she may erupt soon.

Off topic.

There have been string of earthquakes ~200 km north of Kolbeinsey. This is in the ocean. I do not know if there is a volcano there. But I figured that I would let someone know about this. This is close to a slip fault area that is there. But I do not know if it actually is that fault that is making earthquakes.

The earthquakes have been getting bigger as the time passes. But do to distance only the largest earthquakes appear on the SIL network. My own sensor almost doesn't see the earthquakes happening over there due to distance.

Tjörnes fracture zone features two types of seismic swarms: tectonic strain and hydrothermal (pore pressure flux).

See Fig 1 (earthquake history, by date) and Fig 2 (recent microquake spatial clustering), primer citation, below.

The Tjornes Fault Zone displays complex brittle crust rupture behavior, typically within 10 km depth, characterized as 'interacting rifting and magmatic processes and tectonic plate motions'. See discussion, review article, below.

There is a submarine volcano.
John Seach's webpage www.volcanolive.com/tjornes.html

Tjörnes fracture zone primer (open access pdf)
http://andvari.vedur.is/utgafa/greinargerdir/2006/Tjornes_Fracture_zone…

Is Etna one volcano or is it a case of one mountain, many volcanoes?

One mountain, 4 summit craters plus flank fissure complexes.

It's a complex structure. Maybe Boris will elaborate.

Etna is the first volcano I monitored back in the '90s. I think I started to watch it in '95, but I am not sure of that. Anyway, it was putting on some great shows back then and I even tried to print some and I did ok with what I had at the time.

After that, I got on to John Seach's volcano sites and it has spread from there to Kilauea, Stomboli, Iceland, Redoubt, and anything else that may be erupting. :-) Dang I wish I had gone into geology! Well, I can still study and I will be doing more of that!

Thanks ,Boris for the neat pic of the latest Etna has shown us.

John Seach will be on TV tonight for Australian viewers, visiting the active Vanuatu volcanoes.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday-night/#fop

Speaking of John Seach, he has a nicely done synopsis page on Etna with summary list and brief descriptions of past eruptions.

http://www.volcanolive.com/etna.html

Boris last night I caught a documentary online with you in it....National Geographic, Volcanoes Built For Destruction. I sure hope you don't live too close to Etna.

Off topic: something interesting going on in Spain: http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=current&sub=detail&id=164036

Also OT, but can someone recommend some good background reading on plate tectonics? I've read through USGS' "This Dynamic Earth" (available at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html), but would like to read more.

624 km deep! Is that typical or unusual for the region?

USGS historical seismicity map for Granada, Spain:

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2010/eq_100411_uycs/neic_uycs_h.html

Yes, one previous large shake z.mag 7 approximately same location, since 1900.

Webpage describing historical quakes in the area:
The earthquake of ATARFE-ALBOLOTE 19th of April 1956.
http://www.ugr.es/~iag/divulgacion/boletines/b2_e.html

Mentions fault system shakes early 1900s, 1932 (says March, but I found another article says it was Oct 2)

More recent large quake, Mag 5.1 occurred in 1984

Analysis of the Granada (Spain) earthquake of 24 June, 1984 (M = 5) with emphasis on seismic hazard in the Granada Basin. Morales et al (1996). Tectonophysics 257(2-4):253-263.

The abstract compared the 1984 event (first regional EQ to be measured using modern accelerometers) to a larger mag 6.7-7.1 EQ that occurred in 1884. The abstract does not mention the 1932 event.

Original seismic records from early in the century have been lost, which may account for historical event date variability (mentioned in more than one monograph on Granada basin seismicity).

I posted this in another thread but here it is again.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/vatnajokull.html

68 Another quake at Bárdarbunga volcano. Maybe I am looking at the site wrong but it seems like all of the quakes are pretty much at one spot....the North side of the volcano. Could it be ice quakes from the glacier?

Posted by: Randall Nix | April 11, 2010 8:03 PM

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