by On Monday morning, the local time, a huge cloud of ash, hot gas and rock fragments from the Italian Mount Etna spat.
A huge cloud was seen as extended several kilometers from the mountain on the island of Sicily, the largest active volcano in Europe, from the mountain of Sicily.
While the explosion created an impressive sight, the outbreak did not lead to any reported injuries or damage and hardly bothered the flights on or off the island.
Mount Etna eruptions are generally described as “electricity -Bolian eruptions” – although, as we will see, this may not apply to this event.
What happened to Etna?
The outbreak began with pressure of the pressure in the hot gases in the volcano. In the partial collapse of some of the craters on Etna, this was partially collapsed.
The collapse enabled a pyroclastic flow: a fast -moving wave of ash, hot gas and rock fragments that broke out of the volcano.
Next, Lava flowed down the Bergside in three different directions. These rivers are now cooling down. On Monday evening, the Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology announced that volcanic activity ended.
Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so this outbreak is reasonably normal.
What is an electric Bolian eruption?
Volcanologists classify eruptions by how explosive they are. Explosive outbreaks are usually more dangerous because they move faster and cover a larger area.
Hawaiian outbreaks are at the mildest end. You have probably seen pictures of them: Lava flows seafared over the slope of the volcano. The lava damages whatever it hits, but it is a relatively local effect.
When eruptions become more explosive, they let ash and rock fragments fly further.
There are Plinian eruptions at the more explosive end of the scale. These include the famous outbreak of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD, which was described by the Roman writer Pliny The Younger and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum from ash.
In a Plinian outbreak, hot gas, ash and rock can explode high enough to reach the stratosphere, and when the outbreak column collapses, the rubble falls onto the earth and can cause terrible destruction over a huge area.
What about electricity -Bolian eruptions? These relatively mild outbursts are named after Stromboli, another Italian volcano that makes a slight outbreak every 10 to 20 minutes.
In an electric Bolian eruption, boulders and Cinders can travel through the air for ten or hundreds of meters, but rarely. The pyroclastic river from yesterday’s eruption at ETNA was more explosive than this, so it was not strictly powerful.
Can we predict volcanic eruptions?
Vulcan eruptions are a bit like the weather. They are very difficult to predict in detail, but we are much better than before in the forecast.
In order to understand what a volcano will do in the future, we first need to know what is happening in it. We can’t look directly inside, but we have indirect measurements.
For example, Magma travels from a break from deep in the earth to the surface. On the way it pushes stones apart and can create earthquakes. If we record the vibrations of these quakes, we can pursue the journey of the magma from the depths.
The rising magma can also easily have the soil near a volcano with a few millimeters or centimeters. For example, we can monitor this with satellites in order to collect indications of an upcoming outbreak.
Some volcanoes fill gas, even if they don’t burst strictly. We can measure the chemicals in this gas, and if they change, we can tell us that a new magma is on the way to the surface.
If we have this information about what happens in the volcano, we also have to understand your “personality” to know what the information means for future outbursts.
Are volcanic outbreaks more often than in the past?
As a volcanologist, I often hear from humans that there are apparently more volcanic eruptions than in the past. This is not the case.
I tell you that we now have better surveillance systems and a very active global media system. So we know more eruptions – and even see photos of them.
Monitoring is extremely important. We are lucky that many volcanoes in places such as Italy, the USA, Indonesia and New Zealand have excellent surveillance.
This monitoring enables local authorities to spend warnings when an outbreak is imminent. For a visitor or tourist to see the spectacular natural wonder of a volcano, it is important to hear these warnings.
Teresa Ubide is an Arc Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Magmatic Petrology/Vulkanology at the University of Queensland.
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