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A new page of the Etna photo gallery has been posted, which contains photographs of the reconstruction at the two tourist stations on the mountain. Some photographs of the new (September 2004) eruption of the volcano will be posted soon, although other web sites offer photographs of far better quality (see the former Etna News page for links). Due to this new eruption some modifications have been necessary in the Etna FAQ section. Recent changes in the policy regarding excursions to Etna are reported on the Etna excursions page. 8 September 2004 An intense summer term at the Mediterranean Center for Arts and Sciences (MCAS) has passed for me, followed by vacations and several performances at the International Geological Congress in Florence in August 2004, now lectures at the MCAS are re-starting, and thus little time is left for work on this site. Yet I have posted new information in the Etna references section and on my "Curriculum Vitae" page. And this is also the occasion to celebrate the 15th anniversary of my first visit to the volcanoes of Italy, which culminated with my first view of a great eruption at Etna, in the second half of September 1989. 30 May 2004 As the avalanche of scientific publications about the Italian volcanoes continues, I have updated the Stromboli and Vesuvio bibliographic pages. I have furthermore completely revamped the Salina home page, which was in a truly deplorable state; it now renders a much better impression of this charming island in the Aeolian archipelago. 23 April 2004 While working on different sections of this site, which will be revealed in the near future, I have added the latest scientific publications about Mount Etna in the Etna references section. Like in 2003, Etna continues to be the subject of numerous publications in international journals, more than any other volcano on Earth. 21 February 2004 Reporting on the current situation of Mount Etna on the Etna News page will be discontinued from now on. This is a difficult decision, but there are good reasons for it. In the case of renewed eruptive activity, reference will be made to other sources of up-to-date information (first among these, the Catania Section of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, which is responsible of monitoring the Sicilian volcanoes). In addition, future eruptive events will be described in a long-term perspective, similar to that given of the eruptions of 2001 and 2002-2003. Apart from this change, the site will continue to be alive and to serve as a base reference on volcanism in Italy, as can be seen from the latest additions and modifications to the site listed in the previous update (which did not get on-line until today). To these have to be added the new pages showing some of Etna's flank cones: Monte Barca, Monte Paparìa, Monte Ruvolo and Monte Arso. These pages are still lacking maps showing the locations of these cones. 1 February 2004 One month of the new year has passed calmly, giving me the opportunity to make substantial additions to this site. I have completed scanning through my 2003 photographs of Etna and set up two pages showing the photographs of September-October 2003 (start here). Then, there is a fully new page about the island of Panarea (one of the Aeolian Islands), where submarine fumarolic activity has shown a new increase a few days ago. On the occasion of the 30th birthday of the eruption of the Monti De Fiore, on the western flank of Etna, I have fully re-designed the page dedicated to this eruption and added many photographs showing the site of the eruption as it looks today. A further page about one of Etna's more than 300 flank cones and craters, Mompilieri (on the south flank) has been posted as a prototype of the pages describing the flank cones of Etna. Finally, new references have been added to the Etna bibliography, one of which is also included in my "Curriculum Vitae". 22 December 2003 Over the past weeks, I have slowly worked on the Etna photo galleries and finished a series of pages with descriptions and photos of the 2001 eruption. and another page with photographs of the mud volcanoes near Paternò, known as the "Salinelle", on the southern base of Etna. Yet another page giving a list and a full map of the more conspicuous of Etna's more than 300 flank craters has been created, which will contain links to more information and photos on individual cones; those links are not yet available. New publications about Mount Etna have been added to the Etna reference list. 7 November 2003 New publications about Mount Etna have been added to the Etna reference list, including one written by Neri, Acocella and Behncke for which the abstract is available on a new page. 13 October 2003 Finally, I have posted
my "Curriculum Vitae" on this web
site, which includes a list of publications. That list offers links
to abstracts, and, in a few cases, pdf files of the full articles (where
this is permitted by the editors of the respective scientific journal).
I am trying to get the permission for the posting of more pdf files
from the editors, but this will take time and may not be granted in
all cases. 12 October 2003 The page containing reviews of major publications (mostly books) about Mount Etna, which to my serious embarrassment contained a hauntingly great number of typing errors, has been reviewed, corrected, and updated, including recently published books about Europe's and Italy's volcanoes that have significant sections on Etna. 11 October 2003 Yet another bibliographical entry has been added to the Etna reference list, this time it's an article about cycles and trends in the recent eruptive behavior of Mount Etna, written by Behncke and Neri. The eternally unfinished section dealing with magmatism and flank instability at Etna has been completed and thoroughly updated. 9 October 2003 More and updated information has been included on the page about magma storage at Etna, and the Etna reference list has been updated with new publications by myself and co-authors, and another interesting paper on magma reservoirs at Etna by Caracausi et al. 21 September 2003 The lists of historical eruptions of Mount Etna (before 1900 and since 1900) have been updated and revised, and a new paragraph about explosive flank eruptions has been added to the "Volcanic hazards at Mount Etna" page. 11 August 2003 Further work on the
Etna photo gallery and in the "oldies but goldies" section
(that is, the inactive central Italian volcanoes) gives you the opportunity
to (a) see the photographs I took in 2002,
before the new eruption began on 27 October of that year; (b) take a
look at the photos of the most recent visit to Etna's northern flank
in late July 2003; (c) to learn a bit about
the northermost of the volcanoes in central Italy, Monte
Amiata (which is also the second tallest of Italy's volcanoes, at
1738 m). The information on the Amiata page has not changed since first
written in 1997 (nothing new has been published on that volcano), but
there are a few more photos and maps, and links to some (non-volcanological)
internet resources. Furthermore, a few photos of a much older volcanic
center lying next to Monte Amiata, Radicofani, have been posted, but
information about this small but interesting feature has yet to be written
on that page (or on a separate page). 8 August 2003 By this
day maybe all of you will have noted that I have brought back the home
page (or the couple of home pages, because there are actually two identical
pages: index.html and STROMBOLI.html,
the latter being the original entry page when this site was hosted at
MTU) to its fairly simple layout, with relatively little text. When,
sometime in the spring of 2002, I re-organized the home page, I did
this in order to present it like a navigation center to the main sections
of the site. At the top of the page there is now just a short bit of
text leading to thematic pages of special interest in these days, and
the "Did you know...?" section has been moved to the lower
half of the page, below the main access menu. 5 August 2003 So
far, the Etna photo gallery has grown
in chronological order, starting from the first time I ever saw Etna
back in 1989, and at the same time I added those
photographs most recently taken, during the summer
of 2003. Now I have made an exception to this, and added what I
believe are the most meaningful photos taken by myself during the 2002-2003
eruption (which I enjoyed much less than all previous eruptive events
on Etna, like many other people did). This latest addition also contains
a few photos taken by Giuseppe "Pippo" Scarpinati, whose photographic
skills are much superior to mine. The 2002-2003 eruption gallery is
by no means a documentation of the eruption, but of the way I lived
it, with all the limits that this had to it. 2 August 2003 Nothing
new reported on this page for sixteen months, bad news. Okay, those
sixteen months have not been an easy period and there's also been the
complicated transfer of this site from the old server at Michigan Technologial
University to the new one at Vulcanoetna.com, which fell right into
the period of Etna's most recent eruption. For many months, the only
news on this site were the Etna News and a few changes made necessary
by this eruption on other pages. With the resumption of frequent hikes
and excursions to Etna in the spring of 2003, I have obtained fresh
photographic material, and thanks to a new computer and scanner at home,
I am able now to present this material very shortly afterward. Furthermore,
it has become possible to scan many of the slides taken during the past
few years, photographs which have never appeared on this site before,
and about once per week I dedicate a few hours to the scanning of those
oldies but goldies and post them on the new Etna
photo gallery. As of today, I have posted photos from my early visits
to Etna (1989-1996) and the first year and half of my life in Catania
(1997 through April 1998). They are shown in chronological order, allowing
you to some degree to "follow" me through my, sometimes breathtaking,
experiences with this unique volcano and gradually get acquainted with
it. 15 April 2002 I have started re-organizing the Etna photo gallery, a page that has not been updated for three years... You will see that it now contains links to a few pages that have vanished in the depths of the archived Etna news, and which many of you may have never seen. More of those archived photos will be gradually posted on that page in the next few days. April 2002 Wow,
nothing new for one and a half years. Indeed, for a long time the only
changes on this site were made on the Etna News page. It's been an extremely
busy period since the last entry was made on this page (19 October 2000).
I finished my PhD, then my wife became seriously ill and had to undergo
surgery in the summer of 2001, just before Mount Etna produced its first
flank eruption in a decade... so you are free to imagine what kind of
period that was. The winter has passed with me and my colleagues writing
publications, using the tremendous amount of information and data that
Etna has provided during the past few years. 19 October 2000 Nine photos of the visit to Etna's summit craters (finally some red stuff again) are available on the current Etna News page. Looks like I'm gradually getting tuned with my new office scanner - these scans are from slides and I am quite satisfied with them. 16 October 2000 No
updates have been posted here since almost four months (except occasional
updates on the activity of Etna), because this has been an extremely busy
summer, and I am working to finish my PhD at the end of this year. The
situation is now getting worse because Etna has resumed its eruptive activity
at the Bocca Nuova... 28 June 2000 Movie
clips and a sound file (MP3) of the 24 June 2000 paroxysmal eruptive episode
at Etna's SE Crater have been posted on a new page. 23 June 2000 Two unique
photos of Etna in eruption have been posted on the Etna News page.
They show the poorly documented eruptive episode of 1 April 2000 at the
SE Crater, and simultaneous eruptive activity at the NE Crater and the
SE Crater on the early morning of 15 May. 4 June 2000 There
are two things which are new on this site, and both are the result of
numerous requests and recommendations. 31 May 2000 A series
of 11 photos taken by Giuseppe Scarpinati during the 23 May 2000 paroxysmal
eruptive episode of the SE Crater on Etna has been posted on the Etna News page. Note that the photos added
previously to the Etna news page have shifted onto the archived Etna
news pages, indicated in the left column of the page (e.g. the photos
posted on 18 May can be found on the archived page covering the period
17-20 May). | ||
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Copyright © Boris Behncke, "Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology" | ||
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Page set up in early 1996, last modified on 17 September 2004 |