The lava flows below South East Cone: 4-9 April 1999, Continued...These photos were taken by Alex during his visit to Etna together with Roberto Carniel, Marco Fulle and Valeria Perin. | |||
 5 Apr. From the rim of Valle del Bove. A flow coming out of an ephemeral vent drags a "blob" of lava. |  5 Apr. From the rim of Valle del Bove. A flows comes out of an ephemeral vent. The long exposure allows us to distinguish the different trajectories followed by the lava. |  7 Apr. From the mid of the lava field. The marvellous little channel with which Marco had fallen in love (and maybe not only him!) has completely cooled down, and the lava proceeds now completely underground... |  7 Apr. From the mid of the lava field. Surprise! The lava comes out to the surface only few tens of metres downhill. The marvellous channel has turned into an equally spectacular lava tube! |
 7 Apr. From the upper hornito field. The yellow colour of sulphur deposits is only visible near the cracks where magma degassed, creating a strong cromatic contrast with the rest of dark lava surface. |  7 Apr. From the upper hornito field. Lava has crossed this tube at different levels, cooling down and forming several flow roofs at successive times, producing therefore this sort of chinese boxes. |  7 Apr. From the upper hornito field. Lava has formed here a sort of pillow... but we are not underwater! Maybe it's a new "invasion of the body snatchers?" :-) |  7 Apr. From the upper hornito field. After lava has cooled down, a fumarole still active introduces, besides the "usual" yellow, a new colour: green. |
 9 Apr. Near the upper hornito field. Marco Fulle photographs an icy mushroom with the background of the hornitos themselves. The result? Look for it in Marco's photo page! |  9 Apr. Near the upper hornito field. Alex concentrates again on details. Here he offers us the great contrast of light and shade created by an icy mushroom with a 4 February bomb covered in turn by a snow foliation. |  9 Apr. Near Torre del Filosofo. Snow foliations give different shows at different scales. Here Alex goes really into detail, concentrating on the single snow leave. |  9 Apr. Near Torre del Filosofo. Sometimes wind gives the leaves really strange shapes, with recursive insertions of leaves over leaves. I don't know why Mandelbrot's name is always on our mind... |
 9 Apr. From the mid of the lava field. Maybe now we have finally discovered what was the real inspiration for the motion picture "Blob"... |  A time machine takes us back to 5 April, for the final show of lava fronts. Here we see them moving in a sequence of 3 different pictures, taken from a very short distance. |  La quiete dopo la tempesta. Surprise! | |
| Copyright Alessandro Contin | |||