Thursday, November 22nd 2012, 12:57 PM EST
The following report from Peppe Caridi at MeteoWeb.eu mentions an Earthquake Swarm going on at Mount Etna, Italy. As you will read, this article seems to be put forward as a way of calming down the local population rather then having them evacuate in a mass panic.
The fact is the Earthquake Swarm has taken place during a period of a R5 "Red Warning" and I would personally read into this event as being a dangerous situation given the recent history of eruptions from Mount Etna.
The next few days will show if the local population have been given the best advise or if the forecasters will be sent to prison.....more to follow.
Earthquakes Today Etna, expert interview Ingv "shock related to the fuel system of the volcano by Peppe Caridi, MeteoWeb.eu (Google Translate Italian/English
After a period of calm and quiet, Etna has begun to be talked about last night with the first ' strombolian activity from the new crater south / east (for the first time in 7 months!) and then this morning with the seismic swarm started at 10:10 with the shock of magnitude 3.9 and continued with more than 40 earthquakes so far.
To learn more we contacted an expert and specifically the Director of the Division of INGV Catania, which takes care of the study of Etna in a very serious and thorough. Domenico Patane told us that it is:
"quite a swarm deep, with an average depth of shock around 25km, which is typical of the north / west of the volcano, in the mountain Maletto, where periodically record such activity characteristic feature of this type of deep seismicity, which is linked to the system deep power of the volcano. The tremors were felt widely throughout the Etna area, because of the depth of the same. Now let's see how the situation evolves in the coming days, the last swarm important in this area was in 2010 and then between 2011 and 2012 we had many fountains of lava with the paroxysms of the new crater south / east, but it is difficult to say if the two things are connected and only with continuous monitoring we will see what happens. "
After earthquake swarms of this type are interpreted as signs of deep magma during ascent, which is very likely to reach the surface a few months after the shock. So we can imagine that in the future will give new shows Etna paroxysm which we hope to be like those of 2011 and 2012, fascinating and breathtaking but without any risk to persons or property.
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