The Etna volcano, the highest in Europe, seems to have “awakened” today, Tuesday while all eyes are on precisely another volcano, the one on La Palma, which has been erupting for two days, but is it just a coincidence? Is the eruption of the La Palma volcano related to Etna?
Is the eruption of the La Palma volcano related to Etna?
On Tuesday morning, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of the Etna Observatory has reported that the southeast crater of the Etna Volcano , more than 3,300 meters high, has begun to emit ash and lava , also increasing the amplitude of the volcanic tremors. .
A situation seen from our country can be really surprising and alarming if we take into account the current situation on La Palma with the Cumbre Vieja volcano in full eruption with 9 eruptive mouths and lava devastating homes and reaching the sea.
However, we cannot relate both volcanoes or the activity that is taking place practically at the same time. It is something purely accidental, although we have to say that in the case of Etna, it is much more common for it to erupt than what happened on La Palma.
The new eruption that occurred on the Etna volcano
Specifically, it was at 6.15 local time (4.15 GMT) on September 21 when the volcanic activity began, first with the emission of ash and 40 minutes later, resuming the strombolian activity in the southeast crater, which is again the more active as has happened in recent eruptions such as last August.
As a consequence, an eruptive cloud has already been produced that has reached 9 kilometers in height , moving in an east-northeast direction and visible from the towns of Catania and Taormina.
In addition, the INGV has reported that a source of lava is underway that comes out from the crater in a southwesterly direction, however, the situation does not seem to be worrying at the moment since the source of the tremor that has originated is in the area of the southeast crater at a height of approximately 2,900 to 3,000 meters above sea level and does not affect the operation of the Catania International Airport.
The latest eruptions of Etna
As always happens when activity is recorded on Etna, the alarm is activated so that the population has time to evacuate if necessary, but the truth is that this volcano usually has eruptions practically every year and also several times. In fact, this 2021 already had in February and also in August. In the latter (from August 10) the altitude of the southeast crater even increased by 33 meters, so that its new summit reaches 3,357 meters above sea level.
Despite these eruptions, Etna does not appear to be “waking up” to the point of having to evacuate people, while its last major eruption occurred in 1992 .
