No, Mount Etna’s flank eruption, triggered by a fissure that opened on New Year’s morning – January 1, 2026 – isn’t over yet. Many media outlets hastily announced the end of it all when the most advanced lava flows cooled, but the vent upstream is still hot and… bubbling happily! Perhaps Etna also wanted to calm things down, given that the event—a marvelous expression of nature—was itself becoming a source of sterile and dangerous controversy. The volcano spoke up, then, putting everyone “on pause”: authorities, guides, and hikers. Just for a while, until it decides otherwise. To remind us that it’s him—or rather, “idda” (she)—who’s in charge here. No one else.
INGV about the eruption
The press release from Institute of Volcanology published on January 9th denies the end of the eruption. At least for now, something is still boiling up there.
<<The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Etnean Observatory, reports that modest effusive activity is continuing at the eruptive vents that opened on January 1st in the upper Valle del Bove. During the night, images from surveillance cameras on Monte Cagliato showed continuous flashes at the eruptive vents. During an inspection carried out this morning by INGV-OE personnel at the eruptive theater, several active lava flows were observed near Monte Simone. The most advanced lava front is located at an altitude of a few dozen meters below 1900 m, and another, further east, a few dozen meters below 2000 m. The downstream part of the lava field, with the most advanced lava fronts of the last week, is stationary and cooling. During several hours of fieldwork in the Valle del Bove (photos 2 and 3), INGV-OE staff did not hear any rumblings coming from the summit craters and only noted abundant degassing from the Southeast, Northeast, and Voragine craters.
From a seismic perspective, since yesterday evening, the average amplitude of the volcanic tremor has fluctuated between medium and low values.>>
So Etna hasn’t finished surprising us yet. What will happen in the coming months? It will be interesting to find out as we go along.
Earthquakes and magma
The magnitude 5.3 earthquake that struck the Ionian Sea off the coast of Syracuse on the morning of January 10th, however, has nothing to do with volcanic activity. Felt across much of eastern Sicily and even as far as Reggio Calabria, this tremor is part of the tectonic movements of the (many) submerged faults in the Ionian Sea. These faults, incidentally, are much more dangerous than Etna’s and much more unpredictable!
The earthquakes caused by Etna are often due to the intrusion of magma into the conduits, a movement that tends to “inflate and deflate” the volcano, causing mini-earthquakes that affect its foothill villages. (PHOTO G. MUSUMECI)