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Mount Etna eruption in 1669
Mount Etna eruption in 1669

Impressive fresco (ascribed to Giacinto Platania) in the cathedral of Catania, depicting with neat accuracy all the important features of the most destructive historical eruption of this volcano in 1669. Eruption start is 11 March 1669, following a dramatic buildup in seismic activity, which helped to drive away the population from the site of the outbreak. The erupting vent is at only 800 m elevation (compared to the ~3300 m of the summit at that time) and builds a large new cone, later to be named Monti Rossi. Just below that erupting cone, another green hill is seen surrounded by the red lava, this is an older, prehistoric cone known as Mompilieri (or Monpilieri). The lava makes its way down toward the coast, splitting into several branches. On its path, several villages are partly or entirely consumed by the lava flow, only a few buildings seen protruding from the huge mass of molten rock. After about one month the lava arrives at the city walls of Catania, in the foreground, and is diverted into the nearby harbor of the town. The fortress at left, Castello Ursino, is surrounded by the lava, which piles up to about one-third of the building's height without causing significant damage. Behind the fortress, in the western outskirts of Catania, numerous land houses and villas are destroyed; the lava breaches the city walls in this area and destroys a number of buildings before stopping short of the Benedictine Convent. All sources saying that Catania was totally (or mostly) destroyed during this eruption are wrong. The city is seen almost entirely intact here, with the old, Medieval cathedral and its about 100 m-high church tower. Some people are depicted leaving on boats, others holding processions. What is certain is that no one was killed, since the lava moved slowly, and eyewitness accounts (of which there are plenty) do not mention fatalities.
Among the other interesting details in this painting is the fact that the summit crater of the volcano is nearly perfectly quiet, and the dark streak of lava extending from the center of the image to the coast behind Catania. This is a lava flow that is often ascribed to an eruption in 1381 but known to have been erupted around AD 1160. The vents of this lava flow lie even lower on the southeast flank of Etna, at only around 400 m elevation, being the lowest known historically active vents of this volcano. The lava reached the sea north of what was then Catania, in an area named Ognina, which is now part of the expanding city.

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Taken on: May 29, 2007
Groups appears in:   • Imago mundi   
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Mount Etna eruption in 1669

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