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Stromboli update, 9 August 2011

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The lava flow that started during the night of 1-2 August 2011 from the northernmost vent of Stromboli lasted only a few hours; already during the afternoon of 2 August, the effusive activity ceased. The lava flow that descended the north flank of the Sciara del Fuoco had descended little below the small platform formed during the 2002-2003 eruption, stagnating about halfway down the slope.

On the morning of 9 August 2011, a new episode of weak spattering took place on the crater terrace of Stromboli, generating a small intracrater lava flow. This time the source of the activity was a vent located in the central portion of the crater terrace (indicated in the upper frame at left by the letter "C"), where around 07.00 GMT (= local time -2) a weak but continuous spattering activity started, which soon was accompanied by the slow expansion of a small patch of fluid lava around the vent. At the same time, the normal explosive activity continued from the vents located in the northern (N) and southern (S) parts of the crater terrace. At about 08.00 GMT, a small branch of lava started to expand, at a rather slow pace, toward southeast on the flat surface of the crater terrace (second frame at left).

The spattering activity continued until the late forenoon of 9 August; after 11.00 GMT no further expansion of the lava flow was observed, and the spattering had ceased.

 

 


Photos at left: Frames captured from video recorded by the INGV-Catania thermal monitoring camera at the Pizzo sopra la Fossa, the peak overlooking the crater terrace of Stromboli, during the minor effusive activity from a vent in the central portion of the crater terrace (C) on 9 August 2011. Letters "N" and "S" in the first frame denote the northern and southern vent areas on the crater terrace, respectively