It’s not long since the Etna volcano covered in ash the streets of Catania and the rest of the nearby cities, after an impressive eruption recorded last August. Shortly before, in May, the volcano suspended traffic at the airport for security reasons. Now, Europe’s most active volcano has roared again: it erupted on Sunday, when lava fountains and a dense ash cloud on the southeastern side, although the situation has returned to normal in recent hours and the alert has been lowered in the affected area of ​​the island of Sicily (southern Italy).

The new one eruption from the southeast craterwith the resumption of Strombolian activity, first, and with lava fountains and ash emission later, an eruptive column of about 4. 500 meters above sea level, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). All of this caused lava ash to fall between the towns of Zafferana and Milo, although without affecting the operation of the Catania international airport.

“Although a new increase in amplitude is shown, volcanic tremor and infrasonic events do not show significant changes“, indicated the INGV, revealing that the energy present in the internal magmatic conduits of the volcanic edifice has returned to normal. Only two flows remain present in the upper area of ​​Etna, weakly fed, while the lava ashes have disappeared. and pyroclastic material that fell yesterday in some towns and reached the coast of the Ionian Sea.

The INGV is closely monitoring the situation and has lowered the alert by issuing a bulletin that has changed from red to orange, although the new phase of Etna’s eruption has not affected the Catania airfield. The August eruption did force the airport to close for 24 hours, due to fluctuations in the values ​​of the average amplitude of the volcanic tremor, and Civil Protection asked the authorities to prohibit access to the affected areas.

According to the INGV, these eruptive episodes They are a typical phenomenon of the recent activity of Etna and they usually cover the Sicilian cities around them with ash. From 1977 to the present, hundreds of episodes similar to the current one have occurred, including the exceptional sequence of 66 tremors between January and August 2000 and about 50 between 2011 and 2013.