Sounds, movie clips and photos of the 24 June 2000 paroxysm
of the Southeast Crater

On this page you will find one sound file (MP3 format) and four movie clips taken from video recorded by British cameraman David Bryant during the violent paroxysmal eruptive episode at the Southeast Crater on the late evening of 24 June 2000. The clips, which you can view by clicking on the thumbnails, show various moments of that event which was observed by Bryant and Boris Behncke from the Pizzi Deneri, about 3 km NE of the SE Crater.

The MP3 sound file (2.8 MB; duration 3:57 minutes) gives a vivid acoustic impression of how the eruptive activity was heard by Bryant and Behncke at their observation site. You should listen to it if you have good speakers (or headphones) attached to your computer. The first 20 seconds were recorded while there was still high lava fountaining at the summit vent of the SE Crater, but when the fountains died out, the noise became much louder. There were several episodes of very loud degassing before the crater calmed down for a few seconds, and at 1:43 you can hear Behncke say "that was it". Actually, it was not yet over. A few seconds later the roaring resumed and soon became stronger than ever before - at 2:00 the gas jet became supersonic and produced several loud detonations or shock waves, which overloaded the capacity of the camera's digital sound recording. To play the MP3 file, you need a player, such as Nullsoft WinAmp, which actually is one of the best MP3 players available, and it's free.

The movie files are Quicktime (.mov) files and are of high resolution with stereo sound quality. File sizes are from 1.5 to 3.8 MB. You may facilitate downloading (of the sound and movie files) by using a program such as Go!Zilla or GetRight which can be freely obtained from the respective web sites.

The sound file (MP3; 2.8 MB; duration 3:57 minutes)
Download

The movie clips (Quicktime movie files)
Click on thumbnails below

These two movies show the lava fountain from the summit vent of the SE Crater at the height of the paroxysm, when the incandescent jets rose up to 1000 m or higher.
Left: Lava fountain jetting very high, and wide angle view of the erupting cone and the main lava flow extending to the E (left side of the cone). Right: The view in this clip goes from the lava flows at the N and NE base of the SE Crater cone up to the top of the fountain.

Photos (taken by Boris Behncke)
Click on thumbnails below

	This series of photos shows the development of the paroxysm over a period of approximately 4 hours. The first four images show the initial effusive activity as night falls and the glowing streak of flowing lava becomes longer and longer. Fifth frame was taken immediately after the onset of lava fountaining; the following four images show the fountain and small lava flows to the N during the short (less than 15 minutes) phase of high lava fountaining. The last frame shows the lower part of the 3 km long lava flow reaching the floor of the Valle del Bove, some time after lava fountaining has ended, with the lights of the city of Catania in the background

Copyright © Boris Behncke, "Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology"