UKC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39293086

Looks frightning

In reply to Trangia:

My paternal grandad got shot in the arm there, put out of the war. You ain't wrong!

In reply to Tom Last:

That's interesting. Have you read 'The Battle for Sicily 1943' by Carlo D'Este? It's and excellent and very readable account of the Sicily campaign. 38 days of very brutal fighting, particularly for the British, who met very strong German opposition and suffered awful casualties, particularly on the slopes of Etna.

In reply to Trangia:

I've not, but on the strength of your recommendation I've just ordered it on Amazon. I've always meant to find out more so thanks for the heads up - and sorry for the hijack!

In reply to Trangia:

Not as dangerous or frightening as my Aunt Edna!

In reply to Trangia:
We were up there on Sunday 5th (before going climbing in San vito) 3 days after the first eruption, the tour took us within about 150m of the lava flow from that initial eruption, which was surprisingly (to me) already completely solidified and was not even steaming. I just figured they new what they were doing in terms of where on the volcano the tour route went....seems not to be the case!!

In reply to Trangia:

"Rebecca Morelle's team was on site filming for a report about advances in volcano monitoring."

Those would be fairly small advances, then, by the looks of it!

In reply to Martin W:

The monitoring or the lava?

The lava seems to make quite large and unpredictable advances.

In reply to Trangia:

Mount Vesuvius is dangerous too apparently. Went up there last year on holiday. On returning the tour guide told us that another eruption on the scale of Pompeii or larger is predicted in the next 7 years or so. 3 million people will need to be evacuated from Naples and surrounding areas. Sounds like they are monitoring it carefully though and have good warning systems / evacuation plans in place.

The crater appears very dormant, which apparently is a bad thing - all the pressure is building up and not being released.

Had no idea about any of this beforehand.

In reply to Neil Henson:
Had a cracking day out on etna a few years ago watching an eruption, no restrictions so were free to wander where we wanted. A few big booms kept us on our toes!

In reply to Neil Henson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius#Future

In reply to Neil Henson:

I went up Vesuvius about 4 years ago - despite all the hard-sell/warnings of the tour companies, I drove our little hire car up to the car park.

I knew it was still "active", although mainly dormant - the only signs of "life" were a few wisps, even clouds, of steam inside the crater and an occasional smell of gases. Heck of a view, although it was a bit misty that day.

In reply to Simon Caldwell:

Thank you, very informative.