Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 January 02 
Posted on 01/01/2003 10:11:03 PM PST by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 January 02
Explanation: Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. In late October of last year, however, earthquakes triggered a particularly vigorous outburst from this well known volcano on the Italian island of Sicily. Local schools were closed and air-traffic re-routed as hot lava poured out and ash spewed out and settled as far away as Libya. Pictured above was the Mt. Etna ash plume as it appeared to astronauts on the International Space Station. The view looks toward the southeast. Light colored smoke is due to forest fires caused by lava on the volcano's north face.
The volcano Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD. By today's standards these would be considered smallish cities, containing about 5000 (Herculaneum) and 20,000 (Pompeii) residents. But now Vesuvius hosts a large city which sprawls up its flanks: Naples (Napoli). It contains 1.2 million people. If Vesuvius repeats the 79 AD performance, the loss of life and property will be staggering.
Mount Etna: Unlike Vesuvius, no large city straddles its slopes, but there are still many towns and communities in the area. Catania, population 350,000 is a short distance south-southeast of the volcano.
Etna in action:
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