continuation of really extremely interesting discussion

[link to www.wired.com]

Claude Grandpey • 5 hours ago
What some call the 10th paroxysm had a pattern which was very different from previous events. The start was much longer and the phase of maximum intensity was less powerful, as if the volcano had exhausted much of its energy in the preceding hours. We must note the role played by the gases during these eruptive episodes. As H. Tazieff liked to repeat, they are the driving force of the eruptions.

Boris Behncke Claude Grandpey • 4 hours ago
Etna's paroxysms are MADE by water vapor - which is initially built as H2O molecules into the structure of crystals like amphibole, then liberated at decreasing pressure and eventually forms bubbles in the ascending magma. Once a certain threshold is passed, the vapor decompresses and increases much more than a thousandfold in volume, making the magma foam - and that's the lava fountain.
By the way, today's lava fountain was still quite energetic, and lasted longer than the lava fountaining phases of all earlier paroxysms of this year. There were also pyroclastic flows, and significant tephra falls in the east-southeast sector of Etna...
the role of volcanic gas is still not enough appreciated worldwide in its importance, and Etna in this sense is teaching us a lot :-D