The paroxysm on July 16 created a large, tall column of ash, both from an explosive eruption at the summit and from a turbulent hot avalanche triggered by it that descended over Sciara.
The impressive plume of ash rose several kilometers and drifted southeast over the islands and sea. As it passed, several minutes after the eruption, the eastern and southeastern sides of the island, including the southern part of the village of Stromboli, received large amounts of ash fall, which was strongest in the area near the harbor and towards the Forgia Vecchia area immediately east of the peak.
The ash fall deposits are mostly very fine-grained gray to brownish powdery ash, which reaches a thickness of about one millimeter in the southernmost areas near the port. Most residents are relatively quick to clean their roofs, terraces and other surfaces. Stromboli's famous black sand beach is suddenly no longer black, but grey-brown. Now this sand slowly disappears as the waves crash against it, people walk around it, and in this way the black sand returns to the surface. The ash fall deposits are mostly gray to brownish powdered ash with very fine grains.
which reaches a thickness of about one millimeter in the southernmost area near the port. Most residents are relatively quick to clean their roofs, terraces and other surfaces. Stromboli's famous black sand beach is suddenly no longer black, but grey-brown. Now this sand slowly disappears as the waves crash against it, people walk around it, and in this way the black sand returns to the surface. Interestingly, the ash fall in the southern part of the village did not contain any larger pumice stones, only a few small fragments. It must have come from a different lump.