Strombolian eruptions are one of the most awe-inspiring and beautiful things that you may ever see. I could probably leave this post at that! Here are a couple of my attempts at capturing events in progress. This particularly event (photo at the bottom taken before the one on the right), was strong enough to occur from one of the major vents and a smaller one very close simultaneously, indicating that they share a magma/gas pathway at very shallow levels. We were sat on a ledge just below the major touristic viewing area and I tell you what, even from around 300-400 metres away you can really feel the heat! If you ever have the chance to see this activity at night (the darker the better), I highly recommend it! Eventually I will upload all of my photos into my photos section.

Stromboli and its activity is some of the most charismatic and beautiful you will ever see, especially at night (my next post)! What visit to Stromboli would be without multiple attempts at trying to capture that perfect explosion (which many many tourists do during the day and night). During the day, explosions were ash-rich and the day-light prevents from seeing the majority of that amazing incandescence. The photo on the right shows a typical explosion from one of the summit vents, note how the ash and larger blocks are falling down the flanks and onto the Sciara del Fuoco. The Sciara del Fuoco is a large collapse feature on the island and presents one of the major hazards for tourists and locals alike. Inset (right) is another explosion from the same crater where you can see the hints of incandescence and the hot nature of the rock. Below is a real time video of an explosion from the same crater. In it you can see the initial thrust of the explosion and convective rise of ash into the atmosphere which eventually disperses as inertia is lost and mixing with cooler air occurs. The activity is fairly frequent, every 5-15 mins or so dependent on activity levels, so it is quite easy to get snap-happy if you have a lot of time on the summit!