A week exploring Etna - 19-26 May 2001
|
|
|
Etna update (1 August 2001)
Since our return from Sicily, the situation has changed dramatically. On 17 July 2001, the long-awaited flank eruption started and is on-going. During our visit we experienced earth tremors, an indication that magma was continuing to rise. Much of the information in the media at present is not totally correct. Boris Behncke, our group leader for the trip, has written and continues to write very good reports on the current activity and the situation on and around Etna. These can be found on his website http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~boris/ETNA_news.html
More pictures ...
The flanks of Etna are dotted with cones and craters from earlier eruptions. Crater beside the dirt track leading up from Piano Provenzana. (Annette Kimmich)
Alcantara Gorge: Columnar basalts (Annette Kimmich) 
Alcantara Gorge (Annette Kimmich) 
Etna: just below the summit craters (Annette Kimmich) 
Fumaroles at the crater area (Annette Kimmich) 
Etna crater area. We made it! (Annette Kimmich) 
Ropey pahoehoe
(Annette Kimmich)
Active lava flow from a vent at the SE crater (Annette Kimmich) 
Sunset, and the shadow of Etna in the clouds (Annette Kimmich) 
Mike on the edge of the active flow (Annette Kimmich) 
Darkness falls revealing the incandescent lava flow (Annette Kimmich) 
Entrance to a lava tube (Annette Kimmich) 
Evidence of faulting. High above this wall on the flanks of Etna, during recent outbreaks at SE crater, a fissure opened and propagated at a speed of 1 km per day downhill. A flank eruption was anticipated, but never happened. (Annette Kimmich) 
Etna and man: you can never be too careful where you build! (Annette Kimmich) 
Baked soil below a lava flow, with typical rubbly material below the flow and on top (not seen in picture). (Annette Kimmich) 
Pillow lava at Aci Castello
(Annette Kimmich)
Pillow lava with columnar basalt at Aci Castello
(Annette Kimmich)
Pillow lava at Aci Castello
(Annette Kimmich)
Impressive pahoehoe lava at the crater area photo by kind permisson of Chris Crivelli
See also his article on the visit to the crater area.
Lava flows3 photos by kind permission of Steven Jarman
|
|
|
||||||||
|
© OUGS Mainland Europe.
3254 |
Last modified on Sunday, May 08, 2005 at 15:03