Monday’s spectacular Mount Etna eruption that featured prominently on news bulletins around the world is over, but monitoring of Europe’s biggest active volcano is continuing the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said.
The eruption caused a huge cloud of ash and social media posts showed tourists getting a pretty close view of the show.
“Yesterday’s eruption phase can be considered over, but Etna’s parameters are up and we continue to monitor the volcano 24 hours a day,” said Stefano Branca, the director of the INGV’s Etna observatory.
These parameters regard the energy of the magma rising in the internal conduits, which were at very high levels during the eruption and, after a sudden drop to ‘normal’, rose back up, settling at medium-high levels.
“After a software reported to us that the alert thresholds were starting to be exceeded, according to some parameters, a message was automatically sent at 3:30 yesterday to the regional civil protection department, which, via the Etnas system, alerted the local authorities in order to close tourist access to the areas of the volcano above 2,500 meters above sea level,” Branca said.
“From our point of view, everything worked perfectly: both the monitoring and the alert system”.
Source: ANSA