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This is the last part of our Sicilian trek and it's a little bit too scenic for me but hey, it was an exploration so what the hell. Make of it what you will.
Mount Etna is Europe's most active volcano and regularly erupts, most recently in May of this year.
At 3,346 metres above sea level it is also the highest mountain on Sicily, and the summit is snow capped for much of the year, indeed it is a popular ski resort during the winter months despite being highly active. The volcano was formed when the Eurasian and African tectonic plates collided and the African plate was sub ducted beneath the Eurasian plate - BELOW.
The friction causes immense heating of the rock some of which re-emerges periodically as lava and ash through a fault beneath Etna. The most recent eruption just four weeks before our visit in June 2013, was minor in comparison to some of the eruptions in recent history though it was still very spectacular. To view a short video of the most recent eruption (at the time of this report) please click on the movie link.
Nowadays with vulcanologists monitoring seismic activity, swelling of the cone, gas emissions etc. forecasting imminent eruptions is quite precise and the people who live close to the volcano have little fear of being caught by surprise. It was not always so however. As recently as 1669 a huge eruption, which continued uninterrupted for 4 months, sent enormous lava flows down the flank. When molten lava begins to cool it forms a surface skin which effectively insulates the flow and prevents further cooling. The skin continues to form along the length of the flow and before too long the stream is channelled beneath the surface in a tunnel known as a lava tube. With the flow isolated from the cooling effect of the air it stays incredibly hot and fluid and flows far further than it would if it had remained on the surface - indeed a flow running inside a lava tube will only be about 50 degrees cooler when it emerges several miles from the point of eruption. With the inevitable creation of lava tubes by the flow in the 1669 eruption, it reached and engulfed Catania over 17 miles away to the southeast causing massive destruction and catastrophic loss of life with as many as 20, 000 dead and massive and many thousands more made homeless.
As you drive away from the volcano today you pass a quarry located well within the city where the old lava flows are being excavated for re-use as building materials. The first recorded eruption of the volcano was in 475 BC and in 1169AD, a major earthquake just prior to an eruption killed some 15,000 people on the island. With the risk to life and livelihood from lava flows there have been many attempts by mankind to halt or divert flows away from areas of population. During the 1169 eruption the mountain initially began to rumble and emit vast clouds of gas but the locals chose to ignore the warning signs.
Within three days choking clouds of poisonous fumes enveloped the flank rapidly asphyxiating some 3,000 people living on the lower slopes and lava began to pour down the south side of the mountain towards the city. Diego de Pappalardo gathered a team of 50 men and they attempted to divert the lava flow with long iron rods and picks and shovels, wearing cowhides soaked in water for protection against the searing 1000 degree Celsius heat. At enormous risk to themselves they managed to hack a hole in the lava tube and the flow re-emerged and began to head west away from the city.
But things then began to assume an air of the farcical, for the flow now diverted away from Catania was heading instead straight for Paterno, a city to the southwest of Etna, and the residents there began a pitch battle with the Catanian lava squad whilst the breach filled and the flow resumed its original course! To this day legislation created in the aftermath of this epic tussle on the slopes of Mount Etna states that the direction of a lava flow cannot be interfered with unless sanctioned by the highest authority, though in recent times, with the help of explosives and modern excavating equipment, flows are regularly channelled away from areas of habitation around the base of the volcano, with relative ease and far less risk for the workers undertaking the gargantuan task.
Following an eruption the barren, sterile land has more in common with a Luna landscape than any place on earth. But the ash fields and even the lava flows themselves eventually succumb to the forces of nature and in time the soil becomes incredibly fertile. This factor combined with the year round sunshine of the Sicilian climate means that two and even three crops a year are possible with relative ease. Naturally then this land is highly prized and that accounts for why people are prepared to take the risk of living on the slopes of an active volcano. But the inevitable happens all too often and there are buildings buried and cremated by lava flows almost all the way up the SP92 on the way to Rifugio Sapienza a few hundred metres below the crater. The first of these buildings is literally only a quarter of a mile out of the last village on the road, Nicolosi.
The report...
Mount Etna is Europe's most active volcano and regularly erupts, most recently in May of this year.
At 3,346 metres above sea level it is also the highest mountain on Sicily, and the summit is snow capped for much of the year, indeed it is a popular ski resort during the winter months despite being highly active. The volcano was formed when the Eurasian and African tectonic plates collided and the African plate was sub ducted beneath the Eurasian plate - BELOW.
The friction causes immense heating of the rock some of which re-emerges periodically as lava and ash through a fault beneath Etna. The most recent eruption just four weeks before our visit in June 2013, was minor in comparison to some of the eruptions in recent history though it was still very spectacular. To view a short video of the most recent eruption (at the time of this report) please click on the movie link.
Nowadays with vulcanologists monitoring seismic activity, swelling of the cone, gas emissions etc. forecasting imminent eruptions is quite precise and the people who live close to the volcano have little fear of being caught by surprise. It was not always so however. As recently as 1669 a huge eruption, which continued uninterrupted for 4 months, sent enormous lava flows down the flank. When molten lava begins to cool it forms a surface skin which effectively insulates the flow and prevents further cooling. The skin continues to form along the length of the flow and before too long the stream is channelled beneath the surface in a tunnel known as a lava tube. With the flow isolated from the cooling effect of the air it stays incredibly hot and fluid and flows far further than it would if it had remained on the surface - indeed a flow running inside a lava tube will only be about 50 degrees cooler when it emerges several miles from the point of eruption. With the inevitable creation of lava tubes by the flow in the 1669 eruption, it reached and engulfed Catania over 17 miles away to the southeast causing massive destruction and catastrophic loss of life with as many as 20, 000 dead and massive and many thousands more made homeless.
As you drive away from the volcano today you pass a quarry located well within the city where the old lava flows are being excavated for re-use as building materials. The first recorded eruption of the volcano was in 475 BC and in 1169AD, a major earthquake just prior to an eruption killed some 15,000 people on the island. With the risk to life and livelihood from lava flows there have been many attempts by mankind to halt or divert flows away from areas of population. During the 1169 eruption the mountain initially began to rumble and emit vast clouds of gas but the locals chose to ignore the warning signs.
Within three days choking clouds of poisonous fumes enveloped the flank rapidly asphyxiating some 3,000 people living on the lower slopes and lava began to pour down the south side of the mountain towards the city. Diego de Pappalardo gathered a team of 50 men and they attempted to divert the lava flow with long iron rods and picks and shovels, wearing cowhides soaked in water for protection against the searing 1000 degree Celsius heat. At enormous risk to themselves they managed to hack a hole in the lava tube and the flow re-emerged and began to head west away from the city.
But things then began to assume an air of the farcical, for the flow now diverted away from Catania was heading instead straight for Paterno, a city to the southwest of Etna, and the residents there began a pitch battle with the Catanian lava squad whilst the breach filled and the flow resumed its original course! To this day legislation created in the aftermath of this epic tussle on the slopes of Mount Etna states that the direction of a lava flow cannot be interfered with unless sanctioned by the highest authority, though in recent times, with the help of explosives and modern excavating equipment, flows are regularly channelled away from areas of habitation around the base of the volcano, with relative ease and far less risk for the workers undertaking the gargantuan task.
Following an eruption the barren, sterile land has more in common with a Luna landscape than any place on earth. But the ash fields and even the lava flows themselves eventually succumb to the forces of nature and in time the soil becomes incredibly fertile. This factor combined with the year round sunshine of the Sicilian climate means that two and even three crops a year are possible with relative ease. Naturally then this land is highly prized and that accounts for why people are prepared to take the risk of living on the slopes of an active volcano. But the inevitable happens all too often and there are buildings buried and cremated by lava flows almost all the way up the SP92 on the way to Rifugio Sapienza a few hundred metres below the crater. The first of these buildings is literally only a quarter of a mile out of the last village on the road, Nicolosi.
The piccies...
Etna in the distance. Despite what it might look like we are actually about half way up the volcano here but it is something like 34 miles in diameter!
The first abandoned building literally only a few hundred yards out of the last village on the slopes.
The road up to the ski resort cuts through several lava flows.
Catania and the sea in the distance and three secondary cones in the middle of the shot.
10 metres of lava towering over your roof. Not a pretty sight!
Some people never learn do they!
Surprisingly the lava tends to flow around buildings in its path incinerating them rather than crushing them.
There was very little lava inside the building at all...
..but anything even remotely combustible has been incinerated by the 1000 degree plus heat.
Yet another building with a mountain of solidified lava towering above the back wall.
On the cable car now passing over snow drifts insulated from the sun by a layer of ash.
In the ash field not far below the cones.
On the way back down we pass another abandoned church.
The volcano gives and the volcano takes away - the construction material is quarried lava rock!
And again it's incineration rather than crushing.
A shrine to (presumably) the Virgin Mary. She wasn't much help when the chips were down though.
A concrete floor above has kept this corridor intact.
At this location the lava flow passed by literally yards from the wall rather than engulfing it.
Stair porn Etna style.
I suspect the roof collapsed because the timbers caught fire.
This is the well which served this building.
Still full of water.
Time to leave now.
And that's yer lot for now. Thanks for looking.
Etna in the distance. Despite what it might look like we are actually about half way up the volcano here but it is something like 34 miles in diameter!
The first abandoned building literally only a few hundred yards out of the last village on the slopes.
The road up to the ski resort cuts through several lava flows.
Catania and the sea in the distance and three secondary cones in the middle of the shot.
10 metres of lava towering over your roof. Not a pretty sight!
Some people never learn do they!
Surprisingly the lava tends to flow around buildings in its path incinerating them rather than crushing them.
There was very little lava inside the building at all...
..but anything even remotely combustible has been incinerated by the 1000 degree plus heat.
Yet another building with a mountain of solidified lava towering above the back wall.
On the cable car now passing over snow drifts insulated from the sun by a layer of ash.
In the ash field not far below the cones.
On the way back down we pass another abandoned church.
The volcano gives and the volcano takes away - the construction material is quarried lava rock!
And again it's incineration rather than crushing.
A shrine to (presumably) the Virgin Mary. She wasn't much help when the chips were down though.
A concrete floor above has kept this corridor intact.
At this location the lava flow passed by literally yards from the wall rather than engulfing it.
Stair porn Etna style.
I suspect the roof collapsed because the timbers caught fire.
This is the well which served this building.
Still full of water.
Time to leave now.
And that's yer lot for now. Thanks for looking. 
