This year Etna has been again on newspapers' pages and television screens of the whole world.
A side-eruption (which came out from a mouth located on one of Etna's slopes), after having crossed the provincial road that from Zafferana goes towards the Sapienza refuge, was about to reach the two towns situated at Etna's foot: Nicolosi and Belpasso. Other lava flows have damaged south Etna's cableway.
After a series of violent earthquake shocks that followed the July 13 paroxysm, many fissures started to form on Etna's slopes. From July 17 some of them put out abundant lava flows. The ones that have threatened houses and buildings the most were those coming from the 2100m Monti Calcarazzi fissure, close to the Sapienza refuge, and the one coming from a mouth located at 2500m of height, north of Montagnola and Piano del Lago.
In this area, a few meters from the cableway, among frightening roars and projections of burning rocks, in a few days a new crater, more than 100 meters high, has raised and it has promptly been named Lago Cone.
The atmosphere on Etna has never been too anxious: people here have got used to living with the Giant, they respect it, admire it and they obviously fear it, but not so madly. It must be said that it is quite hard for a flow to kill someone: it is extremely slow and it usually leaves the necessary time to go away taking what's possible to move. Surely enough, where a lava flow passes, it destroys everything.

Stromboli. net - News and images about Etna, Stromboli and other volcanoes

Where: Mount Etna, Catania (Italy)
When: july 2001
Images : 40 colour slides , HR and LR scans available
Text: English, French and Italian synopsis available; about 250 words. Article can be produced on demand