Unusual eruptions

24 July 2002

After having gone back to a more sustained strombolian activity in the last few weeks, with a relevant number of events which saturated our seismic station, Stromboli produced at about 7.45 an explosion of noteworthy intensity. The explosion produced a loud noise, clearly heard in the village, and an ash plume. Source: Nino Zerilli, volcano guide.

Boris Behncke happened to be at the harbour of Stromboli when the eruption occurred. He noted a «brown, mushroom-shaped plume that rose about 500 m above the summit. The explosion occurred as a single burst and was followed by weaker ash emissions. While a loud detonation was heard in much of the village of Stromboli, no noise was noted at the harbor».

As many people seem to have witnessed the eruption we invite anyone who has photographs to submit these for publication on STROMBOLI ON-LINE (alean@stromboli.net).

Here is a first report and picture we received:

Foto: Sven van Aken	Position from where photo was taken

Abbreviated from report by Sven van Aken (Via Naccherino 4, 80131 Napoli, Italy, mosquito@estavitrum.com):

After a guided night excursion to Pizzo (00:00-08:00 a.m.) Sven's group descended via Rina Grande and Forgia Vecchia to the beach. They arrived there some time before 08:00 a.m. and were followed by other groups about 10 minutes later. Suddenly they heard a low frequency bang. Shortly thereafter a mushroom cloud appeared above Pizzo. At this stage 4 other people were still descending through Forgia Vecchia. After taking some photos Sven noticed that rocks, including rather big ones, were tumbling down the slope towards them. Fortunately the rocks were stopped by the soft ash of Forgia Vecchia and did not reach the beach. Nobody was hurt. Had the eruption occurred just a bit earlier, while the groups were still in Rina Grande (or even on Pizzo) the outcome might have been very different.