INGV reported that eruptive activity continued at Stromboli during 19-25 August. Webcam images showed Strombolian activity at three vents in Area N within the upper part of the Sciara del Fuoco, and from one vent at S2 in Area C-S (South-Central Crater) on the crater terrace. The vents in Area N had been active for several weeks and two of them continued to produce explosions ejecting ash, lapilli, and bombs. The third and southernmost vent ejected spatter. A larger explosion at 1140 on 25 August produced a dense ash plume and ejected material onto the Sciara del Fuoco drainage. The vent in Area C-S ejected tephra at a decreasing rate. The Dipartimento della Protezione Civile lowered the Alert Level to Orange on 23 July and then to Yellow (the second lowest level on a four-level scale) on 8 August, where it remains.

Geological Summary. Spectacular incandescent nighttime explosions at Stromboli have long attracted visitors to the "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean" in the NE Aeolian Islands. This volcano has lent its name to the frequent mild explosive activity that has characterized its eruptions throughout much of historical time. The small island is the emergent summit of a volcano that grew in two main eruptive cycles, the last of which formed the western portion of the island. The Neostromboli eruptive period took place between about 13,000 and 5,000 years ago. The active summit vents are located at the head of the Sciara del Fuoco, a prominent scarp that formed about 5,000 years ago due to a series of slope failures which extends to below sea level. The modern volcano has been constructed within this scarp, which funnels pyroclastic ejecta and lava flows to the NW. Essentially continuous mild Strombolian explosions, sometimes accompanied by lava flows, have been recorded for more than a millennium.

Sources: Sezione di Catania - Osservatorio Etneo (INGV), Dipartimento della Protezione Civile