Pictures: Mount Etna Erupts Overnight

Island Light

Photograph courtesy ANSA via European Pressphoto Agency

Lava heads for the sea as Mount Etna erupts Wednesday night on Sicily.

Though spectacular, this week's lava fountains aren't exactly a surprise. "We expected Etna to return to activity in this period," volcanologist Boris Behncke told OurAmazingPlanet. "There had been lots of premonitory signals."

The vent that spewed the lava pictured had out on smaller shows around Christmas and New Year's, Behncke added.

Published January 14, 2011

Lavafall on Etna

Photograph by Carmelo Imbesi, AP

Lava pours from a pit crater high up Mount Etna Wednesday night. Despite its nearly constant activity, the Sicilian volcano rarely causes harm, since its eruptions occur so high up and its lava moves relatively slowly.

"We do not have a love-hate relationship with Etna," Salvatore Moschetto, mayor of nearby Nicolosi told National Geographic magazine in 2001. "We have a love relationship." (See "Etna Ignites.")

Published January 14, 2011

Extreme Science

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

In a National Geographic file photo from 2002, a scientist in a full thermal suit collects lava atop Mount Etna.

Such samples may offer clues to why the Italian volcano has grown increasingly active in the last 50 years. Recent tests, for example, revealed a mineral that hasn't been seen in Etna's lava for 15,000—suggesting a deep new lava source may be fanning the flames, National Geographic magazine reported in 2002.

(Related: "Etna Becoming Dangerous, Experts Say.")

Published January 14, 2011

Hot Asphalt

Photograph by Gabriel Bouys, AFP/Getty Images

Lava from normally harmless Mount Etna sears a street and edges blisteringly close to a restaurant near the Sicilian city of Nicolosi in July 2001.

Mount Etna's most destructive eruption in history went on for four months in 1669, singeing a dozen villages, breaking through Catania's city walls, and finally steaming to a standstill in the sea.

(Related: "Italy's Etna First Active Volcano to Get 'CT Scan.'")

Published January 14, 2011

Red Skies at Sunset

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

As two brave souls gaze on, red ash and lava billow nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) into the sky from Mount Etna in July 2001.

The volcanic cloud had exploded from a brand new fissure that, only four days before, was still studded with wildflowers, National Geographic magazine reported in 2002.

Published January 14, 2011

Ancient Terror

Photograph from Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A centuries-old illustration shows Etna's deadliest known eruption, which sent rivers of lava streaming into the Ionian Sea in 1669.

The Sicilian giant has captivated Mediterranean minds at least since the classical era, when Plato sailed from Greece just for a peek at it in 387, B.C. and when—legend has it—Odysseus dodged boulders hurled by a Cyclops.

(See more volcano pictures.)

Published January 14, 2011