1995-1999 PHOTO GALLERY:
The Voragine
The Voragine blocked and inactive, 14 June 1997.
A view into the Voragine on 14 June 1997 reveals that the central vent on the
crater floor, which has been degassing for years, has been blocked and completely
obstructed by a landslide. The central vent had remained open even
Mild Strombolian activity in the Voragine, 5
August 1997.
Two photographs taken on the afternoon of 5 August 1997 when all summit craters
were in activity. Left image shows the lower part of the crater with a miniature
cone in weak Strombolian activity. Right image is a wide-angle view of the
crater from the southwestern rim of NE Crater, showing the small central conelet
in activity, and the "diaframma" (the thin wall separating the crater
from neighboring Bocca Nuova) in the right background. Person (Stefano Branca,
of IGGUC) in lower right gives scale.
Growth of the central conelet and lava effusion.
Photo taken on 28 September 1997 by Carmelo Monaco, showing theVoragine as seen
from the southwestern slope of NE Crater, same viewpoint as the 5 August 1997
photo at right ("diaframma" is visible in right background). A small
volume of lava has effused from a fracture cutting across the central conelet,
leaving a circular miniature lava field on the crater floor.
Growth of the central conelet and lava effusion.
Two months later (on 5 October 1997) the central conelet has grown about 10
m high, and more lava has issued from its flanks to enlarge the small frozen
lava pond on the floor of the Voragine. Photo courtesy of Aurelio Cataliotti
(Acitrezza, Province of Catania)
Spectacular lava fountains and lava flows, June
1998.
15 June 1998. Activity in the Voragine has increased significantly since late-May,
and after several months of inactivity, the central vent of the Voragine -
the vent that was active during the second half of 1997 - has reopened to
produce awesome episodes of sustained lava fountaining. Some of these episodes
are accompanied by the rapid outflow of lava at the base of the fountain.
All four photos were taken from the southwestern rim of NE Crater and show
succeessive views of the activity, starting with a wide-angle view of the
crater (top left), a panorama of the crater floor being covered by rapidly
extending lava (top right), the lava fountain with lava spilling eastwards
(bottom left), to a zoom on the lava fountain (bottom right). Compare top
left photo with 5 August and 28 SEptember 1997 photos.
Bursting
bubbles and cannon-shot like detonations...
The activity in the Voragine as observed on 13 July 1998 was among the most
impressing experiences that visitors to the summit have made during these
years of near-continuous summit eruptions. While the southeastern vent,
near the "diaframma", was mainly producing ash and low lava fountains
(in the right part of the left photo which shows a panoramic view of the
crater - similar to views in some of the photos above - and a small ash
emission from Bocca Nuova in the right background), the central cone had
several vents (two are seen erupting simultaneously in the middle photo).
During about 1 hour of observation, the main vent in the central cone produced
15-20 bubbles of lava that inflated to diameters of up to 15 m in a few
seconds, and then exploded with tremendous, ground-shaking detonations (photo
at right).
...and
then night fell....
This spectacular series of photos was taken by Giuseppe Scarpinati on the
evening of 13 July 1998, the same day that we observed the lava bubbles
explode.Shortly before sunset, a fracture opened on the lower northern side
of the central cone, and lava began to issue in two small flow lobes from
this fracture, as can be seen in the upper three photos. After some time,
this lava effusion ceased, and explosive activity continued vigorously from
three vents (photo at left in lower row). Then, as darkness fell, the effusive
fissure re-opened, and lava again spilled in two lobes onto the northern
part of the crater floor (the last three photos in the lower row). The viewpoint
for the upper three photos is the northwestern rim of the Voragine while
the lower photos were taken from the southern rim of NE Crater.
Activity
in the Voragine on 26 August 1998.
Two spectacular images shot on 26 August 1998 by Claude Grandpey (of the French
Association Volcanologique Européenne) and kindly submitted to "Italy's
Volcanoes". The left image shows continuous strong ash emission from
the large southwestern vent in the crater, forming a plume that drifts eastward,
dropping ash on villages on the lower flanks of Etna. View is from NE Crater.
Right photo is an exceptional zoom on a small vent that sits on the crest
of the "diaframma", with lava oozing from a subsidiary vent into
the Bocca Nuova (foreground). This photo was taken from the western rim of
Bocca Nuova.
The floor of the Voragine in November 1998.
The flat floor in the eastern part of the Voragine, photographed on 1 November
1998, about two months after the cessation of the violent activity that left
it filled to within about 20 m of its E rim. Left photo shows a part of that
rim with fumaroles playing along a concentric crack; right photo shows detail
of the crater floor, resembling a Martian landscape.
Excursion across the Voragine to the "diaframma",
21 January 1999.
Six months after the tremendous paroxysmal eruptive episode from this crater,
I traversed its floor for the first time, observing all of its vents, and arriving
at the "diaframma". It is from that location that this photo was taken,
looking north, with NE Crater in the distance. Some of the vents that were active
during the summer of 1998 are visible in the center of the image.
