2007

03/09 Explosions are now stronger and it is possible to hear them by hotel. During night strombolian activity is nice bus surely not strong as usual.

01/09 I was in “Sant’Alfio” town this night and explosions where well visible by far distance. There was no lava river but explosions’ noise come far to us.

30/08 Ash emission continues. Strombolian activity seems prelude to magma. We are waiting a nice activity early.

29/08 I just arrived in hotel. Weather is perfect so while driving I appreciated many ash launches by Sud Est. At 10.23 a.m. there was a stronger one which created a nice mushroom. Activity seems increasing.

27/08 Dr. Henning sent me three e-mail plenty of photos. His words where: “It was rather difficult to select a representive choice out of about 600-700 photos. But as you can see I love Mt. Etna. If you like I can update later on by further pictures”. Visit dr. Henning’s photo of Etna and relax!

26/08 From eastern flank of Etna ash launches seemed very strong at sunset, low on Sud Est flank and horizontal. No ‘fire’ but I couldn’t look by night.
26/08 Nothing special to report about Sud Est, yet. Activity seems limited to launch of ash. Dr. Henning sent us three mail oh photos I hope to put online in next 48 hours.

24/08 UPDATE: Anke and Edward, our guest since many days, was all night up to the craters. They prepared a report for our internet website. Many thanks! Let’s see what they gave me: They have been near Sud Est crater from 22:00 to 07:00. From Crater Sud Est there was a not so intense emission of gases. From collapsed crater in south east side some more gases and launches of ash every 6-20 minutes during all night. Every three launches there was a light strombolian activity. They presume there are two different holes inside collapsed crater with different phenomena.
24/08 Errata-Corrige: Boris Benchke of INGV specifies there is no lava river, yet. It’s true there has been a launch of warm sand which is visible by night but not a lava river. Thanks to Boris and INGV for news and for their presence close to our craters. It is not excluded it could be a matter of days but no red lava yet.

23/08 a little lava river is flowing down from Sud Est crater! (errata-corrige: please see August, 24th new) Etna is back in activity. Suggested webcam in this moment should be this one: LINK to Etna Trekking webcams

22/08 UPDATE: this I say “quiet”? Sud Est is active and it seems there have been some explosions this morning.
 22/08 Mr. Beck sent us more photos of Etna volcano. You can look his page following link to mr. Beck photos. Many many thanks! Meanwhile Sud Est seems quiet.

18/08 Sud Est crater woke up two days ago. No explosions but some internal depression. A bit of sand has been launched, nothing special but maybe it is prelude to a new phase of activity. Let’s hope, it is too much time our nights are dark.

17/08 “You probably already know but you might want to let others know via your website that the Etna Trekking webcams are working again. http://www2.etnatrekking.com/webcam_b1/index.php“. How can I confess to Niki Adlam-Stiles I didn’t know? Always thanks to our friends!

16/08 Dr. Henning left me a DVD I couldn’t see yet. It should be full of photoes and videos but please give me some days to get a working DVD player. Meanwhile Richard Roscoe has sent me an e-mail: “Have finally made an own website with photos of lots of volcanoes including Etna: www.photovolcanica.com It is a bit slow loading unless you have a good connection but I hope it is worth it… [this is not true, website is very fast, luckly!] Have put some photos I made in Nov.2006 while staying at Hotel Corsaro in it. […] Enjoy, and maybe see you at a future eruption… 🙂“. I ‘stole’ one photo of many you’ll find there about several volcanoes all over the world. Great website.

08/08 Mr. Beck’s photos are finally online. Clink on following link: Etna photos. Many thanks to mr. Beck to have authorized me to share his photos with you all.

07/08 Mr. Beck took me some new Etna photos. I need a quiet afternoon to put them online.

26/07 A new weather forecast link has been added. Tempo Italia closed Etna section but we discovered a new website (yet under construction), Meteo Etna. Click on this link to get weather situation for both Etna Sud and Etna Nord stations.

09/07 Mr. and Mrs. Krabusch were on Etna on May. They took hundreds of photos as usual, most of them atypical. A perfect cut in a long Etna journey on strange new places where no man has been before.

13/06 Julia Phillips is an independent video producer and she’s making a two minutes film about Etna. This is her message to you “I am searching for video and/or photographic footage of Mt. Etna erupting to be donated for use in a short video to be shown on the internet. Please contact me at julia@off-center.com if you are interested in helping out. Thanks!“. Can you help her?

08/06 If you hear a strong noise on Etna you generally expect explosions, lava, emergency. Sometimes you can hear a strong noise but it is something else. Today we had Targa Florio and with them a top star between top cars. Follow link to go to special dedicated section “Targa Florio 2007 on Etna and Ferrari P4/5“. As on May, 17th we have been choose for a meeting of precious cars but maybe in next future we will reach top with a Ferrari meeting like we had many many years ago. And this time no one will eat if they don’t take me around five minutes.

17/05 Greetings to all people of “Carovana Romantica” (website in english, italian and german) who were here today with their jewels. Jaguar, Bentley, Mercedes, Porsche were all here in front to hotel. Most of them were old when my old Citroen DS has born. I am sorry I couldn’t steal the red Jaguar. There was a feeling…

16/05 Charles Riviere took me a new about Nord-Est crater. He was on this crater in past days and it seems day after days. Noise is increasing and today he could also hear some explosions very deep. Nothing visible, yet. But something is moving.

11/05 Nicolas Masselot wishes to share with us a new diaporama about April, 29th explosion. Click on “diaporama“. Videobank offers a new webcam in streaming (real time video). Check it in our webcams section. It should be located in Belpasso and looks at Bocca Nuova, Sud-Est crater and Montagnola.

07/05 This night around 01:00 a.m. Sud-Est crater began strombolian activity. A new lava river is going towards Valle del Bove. Tremors started yesterday evening around 10:00 p.m.. I am sorry weather is foggy today. This time I have my camera with me so if eruption continues may be I can have better photos than last time. Thanks to Charles Riviere who was first to give me some news. After March, 29th, April, 11th and 29th and today May, 7th we can affirm that Fire season seems started!

01/05 Everything quiet. Yesterday bad weather didn’t allow any photo. Noise was absent, anyway. Today we are sure activity has totally stopped. 29th March, 29th April… next one on 29th May?

29/04 FIFTH UPDATE Eruption continues and by night it is fantastic. Now it is clear there is a lava river probably going to Valle Del Bove. All photo have been shooted by Hotel Corsaro’s parking. Yes, all this outside our windows, like usual.
29/04 FOURTH UPDATE: Explosions are less strong now while red smoke seems to come from a lava river. I suppose I will have other news not before tomorrow.
29/04 THIRD UPDATE Andrea Mazzaglia confirmed us what we see. Sud-Est is making bigger explosions than usual. This is due its vent is now wider than in past. With evening coming now fire is well visible in photos. I am uploading them and I am very sorry I just have a mobile telephone with me.
29/04 SECOND UPDATE: I Got more photos. I publish other three images with a bit more fire. All for our friends like Ahti Heikkilä who are writing us. He said: “[…]I have look at ‘Segnali sismici in tempo reale’ on the Etna every day as I have told to you. And now I read yours pages. Thank you! I was just writing to you and asking what is happening? The magma is coming up? Is it coming a new eruption? etc. Ok. I am reading in the evening and in the morning and on the afternoon (when I am at home) yours page. And then my friend from Sicily is calling to me if there is coming bigger eruption. So we will see!?[…]”. Mr. Heikkilä, don’t miss more photos I will publish this evening!
29/04 UPDATE: now weather is a bit clearer and it is possible to see an ash column. Noise is quite strong. This evening probably we will have  a nice show! Mr Beck has been first one to write us about new activity. His report: “tremor is increasing rapidly and Nicolosi-Thermalcamera shows an hot area in the summit region. I think SEC produces a new paroxysm! ” (added a photo took from hotel with my mobile phone – sorry for low quality)
29/04 Sud-Est is back in activity. We hear clearly its voice from Hotel. There is also a bit of dark smoke coming up but unluckily weather is cloudy and we don’t see crater.

25/04 Oliver Beck is now at home. His trip in Costa Rica was emotioning. I hope I can share with you some pieces of his e-mail.
[…]”Arenal volcano produced two lava flows, but we had one day of rain and two days of cloudy weather, so we sadly could not see glowing lava at night. But one afternoon we had luck and saw big blocks jumping down the slope! And in the evening we heard the sound of a large explosion!”
[…]”It’s funny: There is a swimming bath that uses hot spring water in the danger zone. Many tourists (and we) took a bath in the 40°C warm water. When you park your car there at the parking lot, you have to park in escape direction (front of the car in direction of the road). It makes sense, when 300 Km/hour pyroclastic flow travels in your direction :-)”
But back home… “When arriving very tired here in Germany on April 1st, my first activity was (of course) putting on my computer and looking what Etna had done. I was shocked when I read the news on your website and of course believed your joke! I didn’t imagine that it was April 1st, after a 10 hours flight and it took a whole day until I recognized that everything was a joke! I was so glad that hotel was Ok!!!”

20/04 Nicolas Masselot sent us a 31st March photo of Etna by airplane. It is possible to notice the black stripe of 29th lava between Bocca Nuova and Sud Est. We received a post card from Costa Rica. Oliver Beck and Chris Weber are on Arenal volcano and they say it is much more dangerous than Etna. “Here is always a risk of pyroclastic flows!”, he says. Good luck, friends!

11/04 UPDATE Two lava arms started from base of Sud Est crater at 3.050 meters but they are no more moving. One arm entered in “Valle del Bove”, second one directed to “Torre del Filosofo”. There has been also a little launch of sand but in this moment everything is quiet again. Second explosion, this year. And we hope not last one!
11/04 There was a new explosion this night at 03:00 a.m. in Sud-Est crater. I am waiting more news.

05/04 Our friends Mat and Niki Adlam-Stiles wrote about April Fool’s joke. “Very well done of the April fools joke – fantastic. One of the funniest things I’ve seen for ages :-)(…) You had us completely fooled also! I just couldn’t work out why the INGV web site didn’t have any updates about such an important eruption. We even saw the picture of the fish!!! I’m so glad we were not the only ones to be fooled 🙂“. Snow is finally going away and Warm Sicilian Sun (TM) is opening its road between clouds. I put online probably last image of a strange dry winter which offered us almost no snow. Photo of “Crateri Silvestri” in late March with police rescuing two off-road vehicles immobilized on S.P. 92.

04/04 Eh eh. Our April Fool’s joke did many victims, more than I expected. Amara Graps was probably most important one. She is a researcher, volcanologist, astronomer and so on (for hours!), she’s a very intelligent person but she did a mistake… she trusted me on 1st April (sorry Amara!). Read full story following this link. Some extracts if you have no time: “This year, it was my friend Davide Corsaro at the Hotel Corsaro, who fooled me. His hotel blog is the best source I know for what is happening at Mt. Etna [Thanks Amara but Charles Riviere does much better than me!] (…) On the 1st of April, I saw his blog entry (…) indicating that not only is Etna active again, (…) there appeared to be nearby vent, newly opened, causing major problems for the hotel (…). So gullible Amara immediately sends her volcano friends news“. Did Amara see “broken link” and “Click here” which drove to a smiling fish? Well… read full story on link I gave you. Anyway she was not only one to believe it, she was in good company! About Etna, our volcano continues to sleep while it is snowing again. And again. And again. According to Etna Forecasts this should last just few days then finally famous Warm Sicilian Sun(TM) will come. Enjoy another photo of last explosion. You can have them all visiting Riviere’s website.

03/04 It is snowing again. There have been not other explosions. And news of First April were a classic “fish”. But today they also called us from United Kingdom asking if we have been evacuated, really…

01/04 BREAKING NEW. Snow around hotel has toatlly melteddown during night while some gases are coming form little fractures all over ground. Sulphur smel lis terrible and we are evacuating hotel for precaution. I’m sorry I can’t write more but I mustleave recetpion now. Fastly I try toput on a photo. Mustgo sorryc an’t check hope ‘lllwrite form hgome – UPDATE 21:00, I add a photo. Click here. What a mess. [This was our 2007 April Fool’s Joke]

31/03 eruption continued, yesterday. A lava arm reached Valle del Bove but it has stopped there. An ‘important friend’ who works in an ‘important institution’ told me it could be beginning of a new phase of explosions and remembered me 66 lava fountains we had in year 2.000.

30/03 Tom Perry was running down from Etna without shoes (follow this link for photos and Italian news) while Etna went back in eruption. As promised we got photos of yesterday’s explosions. All images have been shoot from Hotel Corsaro by policeman Riccioli. We thank him to have shared with us his pictures. Today there are no signs of new activity, by the moment.

29/03 UPDATE: lava has stopped. Anyway they were two lava arms from both Bocca Nuova and Sud Est craters.
29/03 New Etna eruption? I’ve seen some pictures of higher zone with a lot of smoke, ash and some flames. Is that just a morning event of prelude to a new year of explosions? I hope sooner possible to publish photos I’ve seen.

24/03 Charles Riviere sent us a nice new. It seems we will have a future volcanologist; or doctor? or astronomer? or singer? Who knows! We welcome Luca and we wait him on our volcano with his family. We hope he will like lava between his many future interests. He has born on March, 3rd but birthday postcard has arrived just yesterday. Best wishes to him and to his parents Anita and Charles.

21/03 Two days ago one explosion has been watched. First sign of Etna activity for this new year?

12/03 Winter time, heavy snow and our old friend has come again. It was hungry when It found Marco outside with a sandwich. We are plenty of foxes on Etna and this one is always around hotel. With most hotel guest giving It food during week It is now quite ‘domestic’. I hope due to all food It receives It doesn’t forget to hunt. Now we just hope It stops snowing all the day or will have to feed foxes until April.

11/03 We found a photo with Hotel and Sud-Est Crater in action. Photo is dated November 2006. If you are owner of this photo or you know it’s owner please contact us. Etna is now quiet and only activity is…cold. We are under heavy snow in last days. After a dry winter we finally could ski.

27/02 Etna is white and quiet but Stromboli is in eruption again. It seems there are two new holes and two lava rivers. One of them has reached sea.

09/02 It’s snowing again!

06/02 Etna, -7C° now, +1.000C° when mr and mrs Adlam-Stiles have been here on Etna. They have been on Etna past year and now finally they had time to create another semi-professional video with very good musics. Video is a mix of fixed images (especially in first part) and animations. Link is: Etna Video of 2006 eruption

30/01 “My name is Reichart, Thomas Reichart”. This that I thought after first images of mr. Reichart’s latest video of 2006 eruption. Video grows up in intensity during his six minutes so we have another occasion to warm up this winter. Many thanks to him to have decided to share his video with us. Once more we see a ‘professional cut’ in his production.

26/01 Sir Leon van den Oetelaar today sent us link to an original video. It was made merging several photos took from same point during two weeks of eruption in September 2004. I am happy to have something new in winter too and I rapidly give you link to Etna video. Meanwhile in this lucky day monsieur Nicolas Masselot sent us some photos. I selected a beautiful one he called ‘Etna Scream’. Why Etna scream? Look at photo and you’ll see!

19/01 Forecasts report possibility of snow on Tuesday and especially Wednesday. Just in time because we need a bit more snow.