MOUNT ETNA'S LATEST SPECTACULAR AND OTHER-WORLDLY ERUPTION - Complete with bursts of lightning

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Sending fire and ash across the Sicilian skyline, this is the incredible moment a crater on Mount Etna erupted for the first time in two years.  The massive volcanic plume came from the Voragine crater in what was its first eruption to reach the surface since 2013.  It is thought that activity started around a month ago with explosions inside the crater that the too small to reach the rim. 

Mount Etna has been active for thousands of years, although its first eruption of modern times was thought to be in 475 BC.   It is so well-known it was written about by the Ancient Roman poet Virgil, who called its eruptions a 'roar of frightful rain'. 

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Mount Etna's five craters are known as the Northeast Crater, the Voragine, the Bocca Nuova, and the Southeast Crater Complex, which comprises of two.  The eruption you see here happened at the Voragine crater.

Source
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3344031/Worth-waiting-Incredible-skyline-created-Mount-Etna-s-Voragine-crater-erupts-time-two-years.html

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Above:  the island of SICILY, in the south of Italy.  Mount Etna is the brown smudge on the eastern coast of the island.  Just off the coast of Sicily you can find two other volcanoes: Stromboli and Vulcano.   Image - Wikipedia. 

 

VULCANO, a volcano off the coast of Sicily:

This blogger's favorite volcano is nearby Vulcano, an island in itself, smelling of sulphur, but a magnet for tourists due to its strange colors and beauty.  (Photo above.)  As you can see there is a town right next the active volcano.

You can climb all the way to VULCANO's hot and smoky crater itself,

and touch it.  A truly awe-inspiring experience.

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(Wikipedia)

We are all standing on a thin crust of earth. 

Below us flows an ocean of magma.  

Picture - http://burgler.wikispaces.com/4th+grade+unit+4?responseToken=ec76289d257513c4b90e714d0d6b3f38

Very nice website, explains key geological concepts to adults and children, using images.  Worth visiting.

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