Unusual eruptions

23. October 2001

Pierre Cottens, Volcavento Stromboli. reported that in the morning, at 03:10 am, he noticed the macchia vegetation burning at a level of approx. 600 m.a.s.l. From Piscità he saw two areas on fire separated from each other by 200m.

A German tourist was injuried by a bomb. Rescue team (vigile del fuoco) arrived at 06:00 local time with a special aliscafo, and later a medical helicopter arrived for an evacuation. Klaus Dieter Jäger confirmed the explosion noting that fishermen saw, from a distance, glowing rocks ejected by the volcano. Nino Zerilli reports that he got woken up by an explosion at 2h30, so the fires were probably noticed only some time after the event.

We later learnt from Andrea Ercolani and Lorenzo Russo that the eruption occurred exactly at 2:35 am. Sadly later the Swiss Newspapaper «Tages Anzeiger» reported the woman to have died as a result of her injuries.

Philippe Delacrétaz, Coffette 10, CH-1032 Romanel reports: «To us it seems to have been a double explosion, 2 to 8 sec. apart. As it seemed to us (I was too much involved in helping the injured person to take more than a glimpse at the crater), it was vent 2A in the map by A. Harris, May 2001 that had exploded. We cannot tell if there was only one vent that exploded or if the two close explosions were from different vents.»

Also our seismic record confirms that, as it is quite usual for these paroxysmal phases, it was not a single explosion but several phases followed each other. In the graphs you can see 147 seconds of seismic data (vertical component) as recorded by our seismic station.