Within Italy, there are two actively erupting volcanoes.
On the island of Sicily, Mount Etna continues to produce up to 1 kilometer high towering
lava fountains.
To the north of Sicily, the volcano almost continuously erupting since Roman Times, Mount
Stromboli, is also erupting.
Yet, due to a series of recent developments a third Italian volcano may join these two.
The volcano I am referring to is the namesake for the origin of the word volcano, and is
known as Vulcano.
After a week of greatly increased activity, this dangerous volcano had its alert level
raised on October 1st, 2021 from green to yellow by government scientists.
Looking at Vulcano, it now suddenly has a near continuous plume of steam which is rising
from its edifice.
This is truly unusual, as its the most activity this volcano has produced in more than a century.
So, what does this raised alert status mean?
Is Vulcano in any danger of erupting?
When was the last time this volcano erupted?
This video will answer these three questions, and discuss the status of this famous volcano.
The Vulcano volcano is located on the island of Vulcano, which is 56 kilometers west northwest
of the city of Messina.
All of the islands around Vulcano are volcanic in origin, and 4 of them contain active volcanoes.
Zooming in on the island of Vulcano, we can see that it contains two large circular features.
These features are referred to as calderas, which formed when unusually large eruptions
drained the volcano's underlying magma chamber, causing a large section of overlying rock
to collapse downwards like a sinkhole.
The caldera to the south formed 100,000 years ago, while the caldera to the north formed
15,000 years ago.
In the last 10,000 years, a single large volcanic cone known as Fossa has grown out of this
young caldera, being constructed via highly explosive eruptions.
These eruptions are characteristically rather uniform in size, as this volcano is the namesake
of a type of volcanic eruption; a vulcanian style eruption.
For some context, the island of Stromboli frequently produces so called strombolian
style eruptions.
However, Mount Stromboli also produces very rare but sometimes far larger explosions.
One of these occurred on July 3rd, 2019 at Stromboli, which shattered windows across
much of the island.
This explosion, representing one of the largest known explosions to ever occur on this island
merely represents the average volcanic explosion on Vulcano.
Vulcanian eruptions represent a type of eruption where intermittent explosions characterized
by the frequent formation and clearing of a lava plug on top of the volcano occur.
This type of eruption can be identified via the short distance pyroclastic flows it creates.
Pyroclastic flows are a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter that flows
along the ground away from a volcanic vent at speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour.
Encountering one of these is lethal.
Previous eruptions from Vulcano have covered much of the island with these, so any eventual
eruption would require evacuation of all of Vulcano, and much of the island of Lipari.
With this being said, the ongoing yellow alert does not indicate that Vulcano will erupt
anytime soon.
It simply indicates an unusually high level of volcanic activity is ongoing, not an imminent
eruption.
Ground deformation, fumarole related activity, degassing from the volcano, and earthquakes
have all increased in the last week beyond normal background levels.
Thus, magma is clearly moving underneath the volcano, but it is nowhere near the surface.
My interpretation of these ongoing events is a small intrusion of magma is currently
underneath Vulcano at a depth of about 10 kilometers.
Regardless, it is quite unusual that Vulcano has gone so long without an eruption.
It erupted 6 times in the 1700s and 7 times in the 1800s.
The most recent of these eruptions on the island occurred from 1888 to 1890, which required
the evacuation of all of its population.
I would put the odds of Vulcano erupting in the next 48 hours to be two tenths of one
percent, since I do not think it will erupt given the current level of activity.
Regardless, this raised alert status means citizens should be cautious around the volcano,
as it is now more likely to erupt than at any point in the last century.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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