A local array was deployed on Mt Etna to follow precisely the seismic activity occurring at the end of the eruption of the Southeast Crater in October 1984. Swarm activity at sea level beneath the summit was followed by isolated earthquakes a few kilometres deeper and more distant and eventually by destructive earthquakes on the lower slopes. There was no continuous migration between these domains of eruptive and seismic activity but the time relation is striking. A revised use of the exceptional record over four centuries of eruptions and destructive earthquakes in the Mt Etna region documents the statistical significance of this type of occurrence of major earthquakes in relation to the end of eruptions, in addition to the previously emphasized significance of the relation between earthquakes and the onset of lateral eruptions.
