Etna May 2000 Video PageThe SEC paroxysms continue, but managing to see one is not an easy task anyway. During the month of May 2000 Roby joined Marco on Etna
and spent a few days waiting for a paroxysm. He did not manage to see one from a short distance, but nevertheless Etna did entertain him
and Marco during the long days of wait. In this page you can see a series of videos, proposed to you in MPEG format, that illustrate
some eruptive and non-eruptive ;-) episodes during those days. All times indicated are local. As usual, the pictures on this page are
links to the video themselves (500 to 5000 KB). | ||||
 24 May 2000, 13:00, from the S flank of Sudestino crater during a long walk. Fortunately, this is just a simulation of what can happen to you if you are "brave" to stay in this zone during a paroxysm. The summit zone of Etna can be very dangerous! The incredible thing is that most of the tourists walk around without having any information about the powerful SEC activity... |  24 May 2000, 13:30, approaching Bocca Nuova southern flank. In this video you can follow the evolution of a vapour ring from its formation to its disappearance into a cloud. In order to maintain the filesize reasonable and at the same time avoid "cuts" and maintain the "action", we accelerated the video to 7 times its original speed. |  24 May 2000, 13:30, from the south-western part of Bocca Nuova. A panoramic video of the western sector of the rim. Do you remember the block uplifted during the 25 October BN paroxysm ? Well, now you can see it in its final (?) position, from the internal side of BN. Final surprise. |  24 May 2000, 15:20, from inside Bocca Nuova. Looking towards the SW rim, suggestive view of Marco standing in the fumarole field. Later on, we experienced the crossing of these fumaroles with the fog and it turned out to be far from enjoyable ;-) . |  24 May 2000, 15:30. 360 degrees panoramic video from inside BN, ending on the vent responsible for the beautiful vapour rings. Unfortunately these are emitted with quite a high initial speed, and are therefore difficult to video from the very beginning. Moreover, the high number of fresh bombs littering the surrounding of the vent suggests that not always only vapour is emitted. Don't stay here too long, Roby... |
 25 May 2000, 14:45, from TDF. Still waiting for a paroxysm, we relax as usual admiring the beautiful vapour rings. Here you can see one deformed by the winds. At a certain stage the perspective allows us to see it perfectly laterally. In order to increase the "action" while keeping the filesize small, the original speed is increased by 3 times. |  25 May 2000, 16:09, from TDF. After an increase in the fumarolic activity, we are all waiting fot the paroxysm to start. Suddenly, here it is! The SEC, completely inactive since last paroxysm, produces an ash eruption. We set up our cameras and videocameras on the tripods, and we wait. But that was all, folks! The afternoon show (© Marco Fulle) is over :-( |  26 May 2000, 9:00, from TDF. Living at the TDF can offer much more experiences than vapour rings. Here you see one of our many small companions ("tres jolie", as someone said..). They seem to have a well established home under the lava flows and scoria, and they rely on food left by tourists for their living... |  26 May 2000, 10:35, circumnavigating the SEC cone. As the paroxysm seems again very far away, having all the "precursors" disappeared, we decide to profit from the rainy day ;-) to have a walk along the SEC south-eastern flank. As we had already deduced from the smoke raising from time to time from the slopes, rockfalls are frequent due to the flanks instability. Here you can see some "deposits". |  26 May 2000, 10:50, circumnavigating the SEC cone. Do you remember we discover the existence of troglodytes in the summit area of Etna last February? Well, we found another example in May. Here you can see him sheltering from rain in a cavity left in the snow almost entirely covered by recent lava and tephra. We gave him the name "Tom". |
 26 May 2000, 10:55, circumnavigating the SEC cone. This is another beautiful example of the huge "things" erupted by SEC during a paroxysm. As it was partially covered by more recent tephra, we are not sure about its origin. It could be a bomb (but there is no evidence of an impact crater) but it could also be a block rolled down after detaching from a lava flow, its path being then completely covered by the tephra. |  26 May 2000, 14:10, from TDF. Having returned to our "home sweet home", we discover that on Etna there are people much more crazy than ourselves. With extreme zoom, you can see a man quietly walking between the smoke on the rim of BN in the direction of the SEC ;-). Not a lot of "action" in this video... |  26 May 2000, 15:23, from TDF. The SEC is making a fool out of us again. As we observe it, the fumaroles on its southeastern side show a number of cycles during which they increase considerably their strength, and then they return quiet. This is for sure not related to changes in humidity. So, it looks like a really good precursor. But again, nothing happens! |  26 May 2000, 16:03, from TDF. We cannot do anything but being content with what BN offers us: vapour rings. Here, due to the bad weather, they appear black and not white as usual. The contrast with the background of the lighter gray of the smoke is pretty nice. |  26 May 2000, 16:24, from TDF. Here you can see another "black" vapour ring. The vapour it loses during its ascent makes it look like a spectacular sky jellyfish. Note the rotation of the vapour of the ring as it rises. |
| Video R. Carniel | ||||