Sicilian Culture: The News: Mt. Etna in Sicily Erupts

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Mt. Etna in Sicily Erupts
Los Angeles Times
Forward by Richard Annotico
Please permit me a "personal" intrusion. Back in the early 60's when I rented a car and took the "traditional" English tour of the perimeter of Sicily. MANY sights fascinated me including the Valley of the Temples, and Taormina, but I was able to have a "special experience" with Mt. Etna.
I drove an hour along the coast from the town where I was staying, then an hour up the highway to a Chalet, (Refugio G. Sapienza at 1910 meters) close to where the highway was consumed by a previous eruption. I joined a party of six in a Cross Country vehicle for an hour drive, then had to walk an hour in the dark across a "challenging" lava field, where we then reached the very "lip" of the volcano, laid on our stomachs and peered over the edge (3340 meters) into Mt. Etna's depths, while molten rocks were shooting 100 feet in the air. An awesome sight!
Currently, I think that it would be a "striking" view to see a wall of lava consuming everything in it's path at 8 feet a minute!

SICILY MT. ETNA ERUPTS
ROME -- (July 19, 2001) Sicily's Mt. Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted Wednesday, forcing emergency services workers to build up defenses against a lava flow moving at 500 feet an hour.
After days of tremors, lava spewed out of a new fissure in the volcano early Wednesday at a height of 6,900 feet. Ash and smoke have been billowing out of Etna and over eastern Sicily for the last five days.
One man needed hospital treatment after he was hit by a rock thrown out of the volcano.
Emergency workers evacuated two restaurants and built up mud walls to guide the direction of the lava flow, while firefighters sprayed the magma with water.
The lava has flowed down an uninhabited slope and has not threatened any homes. It did cut across a main road, however.
The man who was injured had ventured into a restricted area on the volcano closed off for safety reasons, an employee at one of the closed restaurants said.
Etna, which looms over the city of Catania, has been spouting small amounts of lava, ash and smoke intermittently since January 2000 but has not erupted strongly enough to force villages around its slopes to evacuate.
The last eruption that posed a threat was in 1992, when lava streams headed toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 nestling on Etna's lower slopes. That year, the Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow.
PHOTO: A lava flow crosses a main road near Mt. Etna in eastern Sicily. Ash and smoke had been billowing out of the volcano for five days before the eruption from a new fissure at 6,900 feet.

UPDATE:
MT. ETNA CONTINUES TO ERUPT NEAR CATANIA; SEVERAL MUNICIPALITIES IN DANGER
A fourth aperture in Mt. Etna was reported to have opened up as the result of the ongoing eruption. The rupture occurred at an altitude of 2,600 meters due to a violent explosion of gas and spouting lava. The lava flow has now reached an altitude as low as 1,350 meters, and is only eight kilometers away from the town of Nicolosi. The National Guard had been called out by several area mayors and a state of emergency was put into effect. The eruption has caused damage to ski facilities in the area and some sources believe next year's season may be canceled. The three lava flows currently on the move are being continuously reinforced by the eruptions. One flow is reported to be heading for the Sapienza wildlife refuge and local highways. The other two flows are threatening the towns of Nicolosi, Belpasso, Ragalna, and Pedara. The curious tourist injured by exploding lava on Wednesday remains in critical condition.

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