This Week
in Fire

Etna was the week's headline. What began on 26 June as a quiet effusive vent at the base of the Voragine crater escalated sharply from 5 July — continuous explosive activity, a 1.5 km ash column, a VAAC advisory from Toulouse, and a lava river that spilled from Voragine into the adjacent Northeast Crater for the first time in approximately 30 years. INGV declared the eruption at Voragine ended on 7–8 July. Meanwhile Kīlauea Episode 51 opens its forecast window today, with the south vent producing bright continuous glow and overflights spotting incandescent magma at its surface.

🇮🇹 Etna Eruption Ended · 7–8 July

The Voragine effusive eruption that began on 26 June 2026 escalated substantially during the first week of July. Through 29 June to 2 July, lava continued to effuse from the sub-terminal vent at the eastern base of the Voragine crater at 3,030 m elevation, feeding overlapping flow fields into the Valle del Leone in the upper Valle del Bove. By 2 July the most advanced flow front had reached approximately 2,620 metres elevation — an advance from the 2,700–2,750 m reported on 29 June — and volcanic tremor had been rising slowly but steadily to reach the high range. INGV's Osservatorio Etneo also reported the development of a new infrasonic source beneath the Voragine crater.

From 5 July (Sunday), explosive activity at the Voragine became continuous. An ash plume rose approximately 1.5 km above the summit, prompting a Volcanic Ash Advisory from VAAC Toulouse. Satellite imagery captured copious brown ash emissions drifting southward. Small but measurable deformation was recorded at summit monitoring stations from 5:45 UTC — approximately 0.3 microradians of tilt at the ECPN clinometer and approximately 8 nanostrain of decompression at the DRUV dilatometer. During 5–7 July the eruption produced its most spectacular event: a lava river from the Voragine crater that overflowed and poured into the adjacent Northeast Crater. This is the first time in approximately 30 years that lava has flowed from Voragine into the NEC — roughly 30 years ago, the reverse happened, with NEC lava spilling into Voragine.

Explosive activity began to diminish between 7 and 8 July. On 8 July, INGV-OE confirmed that eruptive activity at the Voragine crater had ceased: surveillance camera analysis showed no evidence of ongoing activity, incandescence, or thermal anomalies at the summit craters. Volcanic tremor returned to a low level. However, INGV noted that ground deformation measurements show minor but noticeable changes, and that observations suggest magma movement continues beneath Etna despite the end of visible surface activity. Near-continuous mild ash emissions from the Voragine area are also continuing. INGV are monitoring 24/7. Future scenarios at this point are unpredictable.

🇺🇸 Kīlauea Advisory · Yellow

Kīlauea Episode 51 opens its forecast window today, 11 July. The inter-episode pause since Episode 50 ended on 27 June has been the longest of the recent series — 14 days and counting — due to multiple deflation interruptions disrupting what had been a steady reinflation trend. Inflation resumed on the afternoon of 7 July after a period of slow deflation that began on 6 July. As of the 9 July HVO daily update — the most recent at time of writing — tilt recovery stands at 10.2 microradians out of the 15.3 microradians lost during Episode 50. HVO notes the current forecast window is 11–15 July but that further deflation periods may delay the onset.

Both vents continue to glow overnight. An HVO overflight on 8 July spotted an incandescent magma surface deep within the south vent — confirming that the magma column remains high — though no magma was visible in the north vent at that time. The south vent has shown moderate to bright continuous glow throughout the inter-episode period. Low-level seismic tremor with intermittent bursts associated with gas piston cycles continues at both vents. HVO has also published a Volcano Watch article this week discussing gas pistons at Kīlauea — cycles of gas accumulating beneath a degassing cap and releasing in bursts — explaining the periodic tremor spikes visible on monitoring instruments during pauses.

🇷🇪 Piton de la Fournaise Vigilance · Building

Piton de la Fournaise has now been showing dual-source GNSS inflation — simultaneous pressurisation of both the shallow and deep magmatic sources — for approximately four weeks, since at least 15 June. This is the longest sustained pre-eruptive signal of the entire 2026 eruption cycle. The direct OVPF daily bulletin page confirms that far-field GNSS stations continue to record inflation (deep source) as of the most recent available bulletin — though the latest confirmed dual-inflation date from OVPF bulletins in our searches is 23 June, the persistence of the signal over prior weeks suggests it has continued. Elevated CO₂ ground flux at the PCRN and GITN monitoring stations has also been maintained throughout the build-up. No eruption has begun. OVPF are monitoring around the clock. A fifth eruption of 2026 at Piton continues to develop — the question at this point is not whether but when, and whether the extended build-up translates into a larger event when it finally arrives.

🇵🇭 Mayon Alert 3 · 180+ days

Mayon's eruption has now run for more than 180 consecutive days — over six months of continuous effusive activity from a volcano that had not erupted for several years prior to January 2026. The most recent PHIVOLCS bulletin available confirms that the eruption is continuing with lava effusion, Strombolian activity, rockfalls, PDCs, and gas-and-ash plumes. Lava flow lengths remain unchanged: 3.8 km in the Basud Gully, 3.2 km in the Bonga Gully, and 1.8 km in the Mi-isi Gully. Alert Level 3 and the 6 km Permanent Danger Zone remain in force. There is no indication of any imminent change in eruptive behaviour or alert level.