A volcano in Italy erupted over the weekend, unleashing plumes of smoke into the atmosphere and streams of lava that quickly reached the sea.
The country's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said Sunday that an eruption occurred at a volcano on the island of Stromboli, near Sicily.
According to the agency, a lava overflow in the northern sector of the crater area caused the crater terrace to collapse partially.
The agency said that this gave rise to a pyroclastic flow along the Sciara del Fuoco, a steep slope that descends from the crater to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
According to CNN, the agency said the flow reached the coastline in about 26 seconds.
The agency said during a period of high eruptive activity, another major explosion occurred on Sept. 29.
In a news release, the Department of Civil Protection announced that they'd raised the alert level from yellow to orange after assessments of the volcano's activity emerged during a meeting with the Competence Centers and the Civil Protection Department of the Sicilian Region.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, the volcano has been active for at least 2,000 years and has erupted several times this year, USA Today reported.
