Mt Etna eruption 1999?

Question

What Strategies came into place after the event?

Answer 1

Mt. Etna's eruptions, while obscuring visibility in the area surrounding the volcano, were captured by cameras on board the Terra and SeaWiFs satellites in recent days.

The eruption opened six vents in the mountain, releasing a cloud of ash stretching southeastward over the Mediterranean Sea, though the volatile mountain's lava flows have appeared to slowed.

A new fissure cracked open at a height of 2,700 yards (2,470 meters) on the eastern side of the volcano, officials told Reuters on Tuesday, weakening the main lava flow that threatened the village of Nicolosi, a community of 5,000 people.

The magma pouring out of the new fissure, one of a half-dozen that have burst open on the almost 11,000-foot (3,350-meter) mountain, was heading toward the uninhabited Valle del Bove valley.

"There are very slight signals that the eruption activity is diminishing. I am cautiously optimistic,'' said Alberto Di Pace, prefect of Catania, a city at the base of the volcano.

But experts say the volcano is highly unpredictable, making it extremely difficult to tell whether the eruptions will stop soon. In the past 20 days there have been more than 2,500 tremors under the mountain, with no signs of any let-up.

Catania's international airport, which was shut for a second time on Monday as thick layers of volcanic ash covered the runway, was re-opened at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

For a week, Europe's most active volcano has been billowing huge clouds of smoke and black ash, and spitting rivers of lava, leading the government to declare a state of emergency.

The lava flow approaching Nicolosi has almost stopped as it pools in a shallow basin some 2.5 miles above the village.

On Sunday, the community organized a religious procession to pray that the flow be diverted or stopped.

Legend has it that in 1886 the local archbishop managed to divert a wave of boiling magma descending on the village by brandishing before it a statue of Saint Anthony.

The magma has already damaged ski lifts dotting the volcano's slopes and civil protection teams were trying to save the ones left intact.

Mount Etna is a popular winter resort, but tourism officials say snow is unlikely to settle this winter because of the extreme heat of the lava.

The last time Etna posed a threat was in 1992 when lava streams headed toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 people on Etna's lower slopes. The Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow.