Unusual eruptions

16. February 1996

Stromboli guides reported a big blast at 23:57 local time which woke up people in the village. The glowing red pyroclasts were thrown into the sky just high enough to be seen from the village and went down the central part of Sciara del Fuoco. A black ash column reached a height of 200-250 metres above the craters. Continuous visual observation of the summit for the following 30 minutes did not reveal any relevant activity.

At 22:58 GMT of 16 February 1996 the seismic stations of the Istituto Internazionale di Vulcanologia (IIV) had recorded a succession of seismic events lasting about 12 minutes. Our seismic station showed a drop in tremor intensity after the event.

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