Boris Behncke

Etna's summit crater complex seen from southwest on the morning of 20 November 2025. The Southeast Crater is to the right, and on the left the main summit cone with the Bocca Nuova crater emitting ash, and, barely recognizable behind the ash plume, the Voragine crater. View from near the town of Biancavilla.

Ash emission from the eastern inner pit of the Bocca Nuova crater on the morning of 20 November 2025. The dark rounded hill behind the ash plume is the Voragine crater, which most recently erupted in June-August 2024. View from near the town of Biancavilla on the southwestern side of Etna.

A group of hikers, led by authorized volcanological guides, is approaching the southern base of the Bocca Nuova crater at the summit of Etna, seen here emitting brownish ash. The Voragine crater is seen to the left of the ash plume. View from near the town of Adrano, on the southwestern side of the mountain, at noon on 25 November 2025.

The main summit cone of Etna, with the Bocca Nuova and Voragine craters, and two groups of hikers approaching the Bocca Nuova. One group can be seen zigzagging uphill just below the rim at left, the second group is in lower left center, behind the dark lava flows of August 2025. View from near the town of Adrano, on the southwestern side of the mountain, at noon on 25 November 2025.

Signs of life from the Bocca Nuova crater at the summit of #Etna, 20 November 2025, with emissions of dark ash from the eastern inner pit of the crater. Similar emissions in the past have heralded periods of magmatic activity within that crater.

A little new song from myself, written in part in 1987 and in part in 2025:

GEMONA

dedicated to a little town in the northeastern Italian town that was devastated by an earthquake in 1976 and beautifully reconstructed

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A new fine piece of progressive rock, composed by yours truly in part in 2020, and then again in 2025, which is about the sense of life and about ... cats.

That's What Life Is All About

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A stressed-out version of myself after racing to enrollment at Bochum University on 19 September 1985, the day when I started becoming a volcanologist

Google Earth scene of the long, winding road (Universitätsstraße) leading to the University of Bochum

Driving up Bochum's Universitätsstraße in December 2019, during my fist visit to the city and the University since 1991

A musical voyage on the long road that is the past 40 years in my life

THE NEVER ENDING ROAD

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A tune I composed after my first visit since 1991 to the city of Bochum, where I started studying geology in 1985, with the aim of becoming what I am now: a volcanologist

Dear Sam, yes it was.a bit longer, close to 4 km. The longest we've had among all recent documented (since 1986) PDCs at Etna.

Uhhhhh ... no. This has been assembled from various video (including some of my footage) but also some AI, and supposedly the spoken text is from an automatic voice (it sounds exactly like the voice in the Italian Google Maps navigator). No one is currently concerned about a major flank collapse 🤦‍♂️

Photo shows the view from the highest peak of Salina (and of all of the Aeolian Islands, 962 m), Monte Fossa delle Felci (Mountain of the Crater of Ferns) toward Monte dei Porri (Mountain of Leeks, 860 m) with the islands of Filicudi and Alicudi in the distance.

New music from Yours Truly !!!

SALINA

dedicated to the beautiful island in the Aeolian Islands, a melody that came to me almost thirty years ago, but remained unfinished until August 2025.

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Photo taken in October 2005 ⬇️

Yes, but it's rather modest explosive activity for Etna standards

I forgot to add that you hear some wind and sporadic explosions from the nearby Southeast Crater, which is the main focus of this eruption ☺️

How does lava sound when it comes to the surface of the Earth? Listen to a lava flow oozing out of its effusive vent high on the southwestern side of #Etna, 28 August 2025. That day no visits by tourists were allowed on the site, which permitted this (relatively) clean recording

The Southeast Crater - youngest and most active of the four summit craters of #Etna - producing Strombolian explosions and a lava flow on the evening of 24 August 2025. The current summit eruption started on 14 August. Photo taken from Nicolosi on Etna's south flank.

ERROR CORRIGE: the lava flow goes to the SOUTHWEST (too much used writing about the Southeast Crater) ... 😔

In reality, the Northeast Crater is to the northeast of the Voragine crater, which lies immediately to the north of the Bocca Nuova 😀

Strombolian activity consists of discrete explosions that launch fragments of incandescent lava a few tens of meters, rarely up to 200 m above the vents, and generally last only a few seconds each.

The lava flow is on the southwest side (near the February 2025 lava flow) and is issuing from a fissure at the southern base of the summit craters. The Southeast Crater is ALSO in activity, producing small Strombolian explosions.

#Etna 's new lava flow is slowly advancing down the southeast flank of the volcano (currently at about 2400 m elevation), and is accompanied by mild Strombolian activity at the Southeast Crater. Photos taken from Nicolosi, on Etna's south flank, on the evening of 16 August 2025

A new lava flow started early on 14 August 2025 from a vent at 2980 m elevation on #Etna 's upper south flank, near the site of the February 2025 eruption. Lava is flowing southwest into uninhabited areas.

There is also a lava flow at Krashenninikov, and so there is no doubt that magma is involved

It took me less than a week to compose, record and edit this simple song, and I must admit that I really, really like the result.

A SLOW DANCE

Try doing the slow dance to this music, I am sure it will work!

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New signs of life at the Southeast Crater on #Etna: after more than a month of quiescence, small ash emissions started on the morning of 21 July 2025. These emissions occur in brief sequences about once per hour and mostly produce pulverized older rock. Photo taken from Nicolosi (Etna's south flank)

Summer On Fire Sicily is a land of fire - the fires of its volcanoes, Stromboli and Etna, but also frequent wildfires, which especially during the summer ravage the dry vegetation and are in most cases human-made fi

I have published a new piece of beautiful prog rock:

"Summer On Fire"

right at the start of the 2025 summer and the menace of another infernal season of wildfires in Sicily.

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And The Sun Will Shine Again This song came into my mind during the cold, cold German winter of 1984-1985, at a time when the relationship that I was in was about to break up, for which I was largely to blame. There was a feeling

A new song (composed 40 years ago) from yours truly

And The Sun Will Shine Again

about how even the worst dark, cold moments in life will pass, and the sun will come out and shine again - as long as there is a life to live and to enjoy.

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It was very much on the same scale as the collapse events and pyroclastic flows of 11 February 2014 and 10 February 2022, with a volume of around 1 million cubic meters or slightly less of rock removed from the cone

I guess that's satire 😄

A musical voyage across the landscapes of Mount #Etna, from the lower slopes, to the forests and savannas surrounding older and younger craters, cones, and lava flows, to the barren volcanic lands near the summit

PASSEGGIANDO IN MONTAGNA
walking on the mountain

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No, this sort of activity produces only volcanic tremor but no earthquakes

This event was seen, photographed and filmed by countless people near to and far from the volcano, making this potentially one of the most famous pyroclastic flows of our time. Access to the summit area of Etna had been closed by routine at the beginning of the activity. (2/2)

First paroxysmal eruptive episode at #Etna's Southeast Crater since 18 months, on the morning of 2 June 2025. Collapse of the northeast flank of the crater generated a spectacular (but harmless) pyroclastic flow down the upper side of the mountain. (1/2)

Etna is in eastern Sicily (Italy) 😊