View of the northern vent area of Bocca Nuova, looking into the crater from its northern rim, on 14 June 1997. Three vents (only the two larger of which are well visible in this foggy image) aligned NW-SE are producing low fountains of fluid lava; a lava flow (in the upper left) is issuing to the east-southeast of the low pyroclastic cone and covers the eastern part of the crater floor.

The same view on 25 July 1997, showing a cone that is rapidly growing at the northern eruptive area; this cone has a single but much larger vent entirely filled with vigorously boiling lava.

View of Bocca Nuova from the western crater rim on 29 July 1997, with the erupting northern vent area at left. An incandescent fountain is rising from a vent in the northern part of the complex cone growing in this area. The main vent seen in activity four days earlier is strongly fuming but not erupting. Recent lava covers much of the crater floor to the south of the northern eruptive vents.

View into Bocca Nuova at dawn on 5 August 1997, standing on the northern crater rim. While minor spattering is occurring from the southeastern vents (left background), vigorous fountains are jetting more than 100 m high from the northern vents (right). Occasional bursts from the southeastern vents that evening, however, were significantly larger than any activity seen in this photo, and dropped bombs onto the southern crater rim and beyond.

Zoom on main vent at the northern cone at dawn on 5 August 1998, showing vigorous spattering and fountaining.

Zoom on the main vent at the northern cone, filled with boiling and fountaining lava, on the evening of 5 August 1997. This view is from the western rim of Bocca Nuova.

Partly collapsed northern cone of Bocca Nuova seen from southwestern crater rim on 8 January 1998. The height of the cone has decreased by several tens of meters since last seen on 6 November 1997, and all activity has stopped. Continuous rockfalls in the crater indicate ongoing collapse, and arcuate fractures surrounding the cone (well visible at right base of the cone) are evidence that the subsiding magma column at depth is much wider than the cone itself.

A similar (but wide-angle) view of the same area on 10 February 1998. Further collapse in mid-January has destroyed the southern flank of the northern cone. New vents have become active on the southern rim of the cone's remainder, in the area of presumed maximum subsidence. The craggy silhouette of the so-called "diaframma", the thin wall between Bocca Nuova and Voragine, is visible at the top of the photo, above the white steam column rising from the highest point of the northern cone, and a part of the southeastern vent area is visible at the extreme right.

Renewed eruptive activity at the northern vent area, 10 February 1998. This view is a zoom on the collapsed southern rim of the northern cone where a vigorously erupting vent has formed. Two smaller and less active vents lie in the deepest part of the collapse depression to the left of the vent seen in eruption here.