The lava flows below South East Cone: 4-9 April 1999The pictures on this page link to larger photos (usually 20 to 100 K). All times are local and approximate (+/- 30 mins). In order to give an idea of the perspective, focal lengths of the camera lenses are given (e.g. f = 28 mm: wide angle lens). These lava flows started during the great eruption of SEC on 4. February 1999. These photos were taken during Marco's visit to Etna together with Roberto Carniel, Alessandro Contin and Valeria Perin. At the bottom of the page is a story by Marco Fulle. | |||
 5 Apr, 21:00, f = 50 mm from Belvedere. The lava flow on the left releases red blocks rolling down the inner wall of Valle del Bove. Pizzi Deneri in the background and Draco in the sky. |  5 Apr, 21:00, f = 28 mm from Belvedere. The main lava flow spills out of an ephemeral vent on the inner wall of the Valle del Bove. In the background, Taormina and the coast of Aspromonte, Calabria. |  5 Apr, 20:00, f = 28 mm from Valle del Bove rim. A lava flow exits from an ephemeral vent on the top of its tumulus. SEC (left) and NEC (center) in the background. |  5 Apr, 20:00, f = 28 mm from Valle del Bove rim. A lava flow exits from the top of another tumulus. Note the motion of the lava chords during an exposure of 10 seconds. |
 5 Apr, 19:00, f = 28 mm from Valle del Bove rim. Very hot pahoehoe lava flows from a fracture on the side of a lava channel. Steaming SEC (center) and NEC (right) in the background. |  5 Apr, 19:00, f = 28 mm from Valle del Bove rim. A pahoehoe lava flow exits from the top of its tumulus and goes towards Valle del Bove. |  4 Apr, 20:00, f = 28 mm from Monte Zoccolaro. In the sky, from left to right: Iades with Aldebaran, Pleiades, Venus, Perseus, the double cluster, Cassiopeia. |  4 Apr, 20:00, f = 135 mm from Monte Zoccolaro. The lava flows on the Valle del Bove inner wall lighten a wind cloud covering the Etna's top. An ephemeral flow far on the right, and jeep lights on the left. |
 5 Apr, 17:00, f = 28 mm from Belvedere. Etna is a tall mountain, offering often artic landscapes notwithstanding its latitude: melting ice on a snow field. |  7 Apr, 19:00, f = 50 mm from the mid lava field. An ephemeral vent on the top of its tumulus releases a double flow of pahoehoe lava during an exposure of 5 sec. Note the motion of the lava ropes. |  7 Apr, 18:00, f = 135 mm from the mid lava field. The same tumulus releases another ephemeral flow from its E side. Note the wonderful lava crest covered of calcium sulfates. |  7 Apr, 18:00, f = 50 mm from the mid lava field. The same wonderful lava channel designs an 'S' on older ropy lavas. Note the complex shape of the outer channel walls. |
 7 Apr, 17:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. A cold pahoehoe lava flow is covered of sulfur deposits. In the background, a steaming hornito and the SEC slope. |  7 Apr, 17:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. A steaming hornito covered of sulfur deposits stands over the exit of a cold lava flow. SEC in the background. |  7 Apr, 17:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. The fumaroles cover some hornitos of yellow sulfur deposits leaving others with their original black color. On the right, a cold lava flow. |  7 Apr, 17:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. General view of the hornitos covered of yellow sulfur deposits at the basis of the steaming SEC fracture of 4 Feb 1999 in the background. |
 7 Apr, 16:00, f = 28 mm near Torre del Filosofo. The ash deposit of the big 4 Feb. 1999 SEC eruption covered by snow fallen afterwards. The ash deposit thickness is between 10 and 15 cm. |  7 Apr, 15:00, f = 28 mm from Piano del Lago. The SE vent of BN releases brown ash (due to collapses?) while on its right the blue smoke from SEC condenses in a cloud over the Valle del Bove. |  9 Apr, 16:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. The hornitos in the background. In the foreground, icy mushrooms with bombs of SEC 4 Feb. 1999 eruption are partly hidden by fresh snow. |  9 Apr, 16:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. A majestic white SEC stands over the hornito field. The snowstorm of 8 Apr. has covered also the steaming SEC fracture of 4 Feb. 1999. |
 9 Apr, 16:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. A hornito is covered by a foliation of snow horizontal stalagmites, deposited by the snowstorm of 8 Apr. The solfatara covers some ice of yellow sulfur. |  9 Apr, 16:00, f = 28 mm from the upper hornito field. The hornitos in the upper hornito field are covered of ice deposited by the snowstorm of 8 Apr. In the background, a majestic white SEC. |  9 Apr, 14:00, f = 28 mm from the mid lava field. Melting ice just in front of a lava flow issuing from an ephemeral vent produces a wonderful contrast. |  9 Apr, 14:00, f = 50 mm from the mid lava field. An ephemeral vent about 2 m wide. Note the complex features of the ropy lava on the channel walls and the lava crest around the flow. |
| The lava flow at Easter 1999 by Marco Fulle Etna is tired. During Easter weekend, hundreds of tourists assault her asking for new shows, lava flows in front of which be photographed, like japanese girls with Apollo of Belvedere. As kind as always, she agrees, with innocuous ephemeral flows that burn the "back" of who chose undecided photographers. As usual, as long as darkness falls, we remain alone to enjoy the show, always marvellous, of the incandescent flow that slowly covers older and colder ones. I also leave my camera, by night it is almost impossible to obtain decent photographs, and finally the time comes for me too to relax and enjoy the show. Even now that Etna is tired, she can offer material for hours of attention. Leaving majestic things behind, she now offers particular minute details of fragile beauty, and the lack of every danger allows us a relaxed enjoyment, something unusual here. One gets lost in small and fractured crests (the magical word: fractals comes to our minds), walls of channels of ununderstandable shapes, shapes of flows that would exclude chance. So, even if the show may be classified as negligible, usual or not deserving our time by the experts, we continue in the following days to return there, over and over again, sure to find always new and unpredicted things. This morning a storm receives us, at Rifugio Sapienza everything is white but it is already warm. At the top of the funivia, we enter the big clouds of the storm, but we are confident that the summer will soon melt them. It seems the same confidence is not shared by the multicoloured group of CamminaItalia who, obeying the rigid laws of the alpine mountaineers, turns back and come down (we add, with a little malignity: "ignominiously"). In fact, when we reach the flows, Etna as always, turns over the rules. Here, today, who does not sleep does not take fishes: noon and not before, was the righ time to go up. At noon, all the fog is dissolved leaving the place to a solar African day, we sweat from the heat that comes both from below and from above, and we look for the snow, most abundant, in order to find relief. Today the miracle repeated itself. Etna has used its storms in order to draw fantastic landscapes with ice and snow, the lava flows become incredibly just a background. When we reach the hornitos, the emotion overcomes us, by the beauty that we would have never imagined. Etna was able to dress with the most beautiful jewels: even the Tower of the Philosopher manages to become nice, covered of amazing white merletti. From the Tower, we start an enchanting descent, sure that even this time, time has come for us to return home. | |||