Sicily's Mt. Etna Erupts, Lights Up Night Sky

[brooklynite]

Source: NPR

Overnight, Mount Etna in Italy erupted. Luckily, the volcano is about 18 miles from the town of Catania on Sicily's east coast, so it hasn't caused much disruption. The images, though, are stunning:



The Daily Mail gives us a history lesson:

Known as 'Jebel Utlamat' in Arabic - meaning 'mountain of fire - Etna's name is thought to originate from the Phoenician word 'attuna', meaning 'furnace'.

The volcano has been active for around half a million years, with 15,000 people killed during its most violent eruption in 1669.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/13/132904659/sicilys-mt-etna-erupts-lights-up-night-sky

[CJvR]

1. 15,000?

I thought Etna's eruptions tended to be more benign, unlike Vesuvius who seems to have a major Plinian eruption every 2 millenea.

[msanthrope]

7. She's not benign at all--she routinely spews and shakes.

(My entire family is from that area. I go back from time to time. She makes Vesuvius look like a child's science project.)

[napi21]

2. My son & his wife live in Cantnia. Etna erupts pretty regularly,

at least several time a year. It's true they are farenough away that the molten lava isn't a threat, but they comlain about the ash. imagine everything, your car, yard, house, streets, sidewalks, and just everything gets covered in extremely find black ash. It's no longer hot enough to burn anything when it fals, but it makes a BIG MESS!

[progressoid]

3. I remember the problems my sister encountered with ash.

And she was hundreds of miles away from Mt St Helens when it erupted. It is a messy problem.

[wxgeek7]

4. other towns

Catania is for the most part out of harms way. But for small towns like Nicolosi and Pedara, which are on Etna's mountain side, They're less likely to fair well during Etna's eruptions of slow-moving lava.

I lived in the shadow of Etna for a few years. Even managed to see a major eruption, and kept a little of the ash as a souvenir.

Here's some webcam's of Etna by INGV:

http://www.ct.ingv.it/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=202

[AsahinaKimi]

5. If its the one I am thinking of ...

I recall seeing it like this from a ship a few years ago. It was an amazing sight, turning the night into an orange glow.

[suston96]

6. I climbed Mt. Aetna in Sep 2001.......

....OK a tour bus drove us half way up there. When we stepped off the bus, the ground beneath us was still very warm, from an eruption 6 or 8 months earlier. It was smoking with a little redness showing here and there.

It is known as a gentle volcano these days but I wouldn't trust any volcano.

I brought some volcanic ash home with me. I was born in Sicily and wanted a souvenir.

[Baclava]

8. What did Edgar Cayce say about Etna?.....oh yeah

The Beginning



coo-coo-ca-choo

[Dover]

9. Now that's an interesting coincidence...

A few days ago I was in that half sleep just before fully waking one morning and heard a voice say "Edna". Puzzled, I replied "Huh? Edna?" And then I heard the name again .."Edna".
"Okay", I replied "but who is Edna?". I laid there trying to figure out who I knew by that name, as this 'voice' sounded a bit alarmed as though it was something I needed to know. Then I asked
the voice if it was saying 'Etna' rather than Edna. The reply was in the affirmative, "Yes, Etna".

End of dream. I forgot about it until I just saw this news story.
Not sure what it all means, if anything. But makes me go...."hmmmmm".