
Mount Etna erupts on Christmas Eve
24 December 2018 11:00 UTC–25 December 03:00 UTC


On Christmas Eve 2018 Mount Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano, started erupting.
Last Updated
21 December 2020
Published on
24 December 2018
By HansPeter Roesli (Switzerland)
The Meteosat-11 Volcanic Ash RGB image (Figure 1) and animation (Figure 2) shows the first phase of the eruption, from 24–25 December.

In the following days Etna only released a quite strong S02 plume (green), no red-to-yellow ash signal was detected in the plume any more. In the new year the activity appeared to have weakened considerably or stopped altogether.
In the animation pan-African-like colours of red-gold-green show that ash and S02 travelled eastwards across the central Mediterranean.
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