A particularly spectacular

blast from Italy’s Mount Etna volcano belched out a towering cloud of ash and

lava stone Sunday onto Sicilian villages, the latest in a series of explosions

since mid-February.

Italy’s national

geophysics and volcanology institute INGV said the powerful explosion at 2:00 am

was the 10th such big blast since Feb. 16, when Europe’s most active volcano

started giving off an impressive demonstration of nature’s fire power, colouring

the night sky in shocking hues of orange and red.

Increasing

tremors rattled the mountain throughout much of the night. Ash and small lava

stones rained down on eight villages on Etna’s slopes Sunday morning, while

lava flowed from the southeast crater slowly down an uninhabited side, as it

has been doing for the last three weeks, the institute said.

The column of ash and lava reached

a height of 10,000 metres on Sunday, according to scientists who monitor

volcanic activity with specialized instruments from an observatory at Etna in

eastern Sicily.

Locals swept ash

and lava stones from their front steps and balconies. They have taken to

covering cars parked outdoors with carpets, blankets and sheets of cardboard to

make clean-up easier after each blast. Winds helped carry the ash eastward,

INGV said.

No injuries or

serious damage have been reported after the recent blasts. Geologically active,

Etna occasionally becomes particularly noisy and explosive as it has been

lately.

By mid-morning,

Etna’s latest display of activity had slowed somewhat with the lava flow

ending, although the volcano was still puffing out “weak emission of ash” from

the southeast crater. A few hours later, the volcanic tremors picked up again,

INGV said in a statement.

The INGV

scientists say there is no way of predicting when this current round of

particularly robust volcanic activity might subside.