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In recent days, Mount Etna has begun to move, and on Tuesday night not only smoke but also lava has fallen from the volcano. Meanwhile, Sicily was rocked by an earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale and, according to some reports, 4.8 magnitude, writes 24.hu.
The epicenter of the earthquake was identified 30 kilometers south of the island under the sea, so it was not caused by volcanic activity. The earthquake lasted only 10-12 seconds, but it could be felt from Palermo to Catania, but it was what shook eastern Sicily the most, he wrote on the 24th.
The earthquake was also felt in Malta. However, the earthquake and the volcanic activity have nothing to do with each other, volcanologist Szabolcs Harangi, director of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University, told InfoRádió. The first dates back to the tectonic, that is, structural, displacement of rocky bodies south of Sicily, while Etna has been dormant for months, producing minor explosive eruptions in the craters.
The operation of the volcano worsened on December 14 with a larger explosive eruption in the southeast crater, followed in recent days by two more consecutive of the so-called 24-hour paroxysmal eruptions, that is, much stronger than usual. This is presumably due to the fact that the fresh magma has reached the surface and exploded, somehow like a drink from a bottle of champagne, the expert explained.
There were examples of this between 2011 and 2013, when more than fifty phenomena of similar magnitude occurred, which predicts that a more intense phase in the life of Etna may occur again.
The volcanic activity does not pose a direct threat to the local population, at best because the first major explosion resulted in an ash cloud several kilometers high, causing the ash to fall on the surrounding settlements. At the same time, Szabolcs Harangi also noted that volcanologists now expect the side of the volcano to crack, as there have been many examples of this in recent decades, which in turn can lead to greater dangers due to lava flows.
The 4.4 magnitude earthquake was related to a clear movement of rock that was far from Mount Etna, which in turn has its own system and produces other earthquakes. The earthquake signs of the two phenomena were also quite different, the volcanologist told Inforadio.
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