Etna, South East cone

1rst June 2000

Chr.Braunmüller, Th.Boeckel

 

The pre- paroxysm phase of the SE-crater at 1030 am was seen from the traghetti (St.Giovanni / Messina) by Christine Braunmüller and me. A splendid weather condition let us recognized a dark zigzag cloud over the summit of Mt.Etna going in eastern direction.While tipping with the toes on the Sicilian  island (Messina) the event must going on very intensive, and after passing the 5th or 30th ???? tunnel of the highway ME- CA (hurry, hurry), a huge white/gray eruption cloud was Etnas welcome celebration for this journey.The Photo above was taken from Heiko Hofmann (apprx. position: Taormina )..during the morning eruption, and shows the steam/ash cloud which reached many kilometer high  into the sky. .....muchos gracias..

..between Td'F and SE 1900 pm

1       2     3

Images 1 and 3 are showing  lavabomb-craters up to an diameter more than eight meters. The formation of the crater is dated back to the last weeks/month eruptions of the SE. The bombs were ejected more than 1 km behind the  Refugio Td'F, so the flight - distance of this big thing was nearly 2000m!!! .Now you can understand why this warning-shield (2) has it's standing right at 2700 m elevation.

There is no kind of security in the upper fields

Junction near Mt.Sona 21h 10 pm

      4        5

Capture four shows the event three km south of Sapienza in direction Nicolosi  token with the infrared technique. In the further development of the paroxysm a lighting candle of hot gases (5) of maybe 80 m over the SE (tele lens 25 x) was filmed five minutes before the main eruption. (5a-b)

5a-b

          6-8

Video captures 6-8  are showing the main part of the eruption of the SE-conus at 21h 20 pm [(three hours later (we), we would have seen it from the Td'F ) grrrr]. The magma was mainly thrown out to the northern part of the SE-conus. The ejection height of magma was nearly 400 m. 

 9  10

The tight thepra-cloud (9) which was going straight toward to us in southern direction (Village of Nicolosi) was creeping ten minutes later from the neck down in our underwear and filled up our socks...really! Image 10 shows the top of  my car during the lapilli-fall.

On the photos 11/12 you can see that at 21h 15 a lavaflow was leaving the SE-conus in the southern direction.

11 12

The captures (11/12, 13 a-f ) should demonstrate how the infrared technique can amplify useful details by night. It was also possible to catch details through the compact ash/gas cloud.

Video Clip

original                 infrared              post adaptation

Location, Faggeta near Monte Monaco 6 km east from the SE-conus

Lavaflow of Etna behind the church of Zafferana Etnea 11 pm,  and Boeckel on the Lava fields of the SE

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 © all photos&text by Thorsten Boeckel  (23.5.2000)

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