Unusual eruptions

February and May 1993

10. February 1993

The first crisis of 1993 consisted in a short series of violent explosions which occurred for the summit craters on 10 February, 16.10 GMT, ejecting a large tephra column. Lithic blocks and lava fragments fell 1 km from the summit and heavy ashfall occurred at the village of Ginostra, about 2 km SW of the summit. Only weak degassing from the summit craters was visble during the next two days. The seismic activity showed a very abrupt decrease after the explosions:

Black line: Tremor intensity, yellow: number of events, red: number of saturating events per day.

The lava flow of May 1993

During Spring 1993 there was a period of very high Strombolian activity, which ranged approximately from 20 April to 26 May. This activity culminated in a small lava flow which occurred on 16 May from the base of a cone in the NE crater. During the night the flow travelled about 30 m down the slope, reaching the feeding fissure of the 1985 eruption before stopping. The flow then resumed on 18 May, covering about 60 m of 1985 lava NE towards the very steep slope called Sciara del Fuoco. The end of the crisis was characterized by a slow decay of the tremor intensity, which lasted five or six days and was accompanied by a similar decay of the number of recorded shocks; with respect to the February crisis the rate of this decay was much slower.