July 3, 2019 Eruption of Stromboli

Stromboli was hit by a set of violent eruptions Wednesday and the Mayor of Lipari, the biggest of the Aeolian Islands off Sicily that Stromboli belongs too, said one person was killed. Mayor Marco Giorgianni told ANSA that the victim was tourist who had trekked up to the summit of the volcano. The eruptions caused scared beach tourists to take to the sea. Two new lava spouts are creeping down the volcano on the famed island. The volcano is also shooting out red-hot rocks called lapilli which are setting fore to cane breaks, local sources said. "A huge column of dense black smoke is coming out of the crater," an eye witness said. Another said "there was a powerful explosion. We heard a bang, then a column of smoke and lapilli fell onto Ginostra, and flames on the slopes of the volcano". Fires have broken out across the island, fire services and forest rangers said. A journalist and owner of a bazar at Ginsotra, Gianluca Giuffre, told ANSA "all the people who were in the village about a hundred tourists and residents, either holed up at home or threw themselves into the sea. (reference #12459)

Two pyroclastic flows were produced as a result of the explosions; they traveled down the Sciara and across the water for about 1 km before collapsing into the sea (figure 150). A hiker from Sicily was killed in the eruption and a Brazilian friend who was with him was badly injured, according to a Sicilian news source, ANSA, and the New York Post. They were hit by flying ejecta while hiking in the Punta dei Corvi area, due W of the summit and slightly N of Ginostra, about 100 m above sea level according to INGV. Most of the ejecta from the explosion dispersed to the WSW of the summit. Fallout also ignited vegetation on the slopes which narrowly missed destroying structures in the town. (reference #12572)