Volcano on Italian island of Stromboli spews lava and ash in latest eruption
A volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli erupted Wednesday, sending a massive cloud of smoke and ash more than a mile into the sky – almost two months after a similar explosion killed a hiker there, according to reports.
The “high intensity” blast in southern Italy off the Sicilian coast was recorded just after noon, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology. No casualties were reported.
The explosion, which was classified as a “paroxysmal event,” produced a pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving mixture of gas, rock and volcanic ash that stretched several hundred meters into the sea, according to CNN.
In the July eruption, the volcano releasing hot trapped magma in a powerful explosion that killed the 35-year-old hiker, Massimo Imes, and covered the popular tourist destination in ash.
On Wednesday, video footage showed a group of Italians fleeing the tiny island in panic as gigantic clouds of ash rolled across the sea, according to The Telegraph.
On another small vessel, a British family watched as the eruption took place.
“Wow! The whole mountain is shaking!” a man says. “Oh my goodness, that is really bad, guys.”
Nicole Bremner, an Australian living in England, was on a boat off Stromboli when the eruption occurred, the news outlet reported.
“We were just at Stromboli volcano watching the small eruptions. We left and then this giant eruption happened!” she wrote in social media, adding that the smoke and ash had left “a metallic taste in our mouths.”
Elena Schiera, 19, of Palermo, Sicily, was on a sailboat during the eruption.
“We were sailing at a safe distance as per ordinance, when all of a sudden we heard a loud bang and saw a large black cloud spewing out of the Stromboli crater and pouring into the sea,” she told CNN.
“We immediately increased the speed of the boat to the maximum, even though, being a sailboat, the speed was still limited. Then the cloud arrived at sea and began to advance quickly towards us,” Schiera said.
“At that moment the panic broke out because we had the cloud a few meters away from our stern, but thanks to my father who was at the helm we managed to get away just in time because then the cloud started to rise again.”
Experts believe the volcano on Stromboli, part of the Aeolian archipelago, has been in nearly continuous eruption for at least 2,000 years, with incandescent lava, ash and volcanic rock regularly spewing from its cone.
“The situation is under control, but all the same we have activated the normal civil protection procedures,” said Marco Giorgianni, the mayor of Lipari, the most populated of the area’s islands.