THE STRENGTH OF NATURE: PHREATIC EXPLOSION ON ETNA by Vito Finocchiaro

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THE STRENGTH OF NATURE: PHREATIC EXPLOSION ON ETNA

vito finocchiaro

Feb 24, 2018

Mine is an endless way, among the path of Etna, our "Good Giant", whose immense beauty has been told for centuries and whose "essence"still fascinates humans, eager to know its twists and turns. This is a contrasting land, an unlimited source of dualism, mysterious and fertile at the same time. Hardly a day goes by that we, Genti of Etna, do not raise our eyes to the sky, conscious of the fact that here anything could happen abruptly. Here, a balance can be broken in a blink of an eye and it only remains for us, powerless people, to witness the immeasurable strength of the One who overlooks such places: A Muntagna. A place, unique of its kind, where you feel suspended halfway between sky and earth, as while you are admiring her power and secrets, amid lunar landscapes of the lava fields and its craters, you are able to observe the horizon of the sea. A land where the strength of nature mixes its elements creating contrasting sceneries and where fantasy and psyche give life to surreal and shifty images, andunforgettable feelings. On an apparently ordinary day,wandering around these places andtrying to photograph their essence, I touched the strength of nature. Saturday 18th March 2017, in the middle of a picture story work about the eruption, a change of the path on the way back involved me in an extraordinary event: a phreatomagmatic eruption. Choosing a longer but less tiring route suddenly turns into the awareness that, behind a crater, at an altitude of 2500meters, something is happening... the white smoke starts rising from the ground. Thousands thoughts and a decision to take. The white fume increases and spreads, I take my camera. I want to immortalize what is happening. In a split second a terrible explosion behind me. A momentary vapour expansion creates a huge and spectacular grey-reddish cloudwhich rises from the lava front and with lightning speed spreads in all directions, wrapping around itselfby rising to the sky. A glowing lava landslide crashed into the snow blocks. The difference of temperature between the magma and the blanket of snow produced an extremely violent burst. Endless moments. Vapour, water, ash, white-hot flakes everywhere. Like a Giant lifting himself from the ground, his powerful arms envelope the cableway. I stand stock-still, staring at that great power e and I realise how small and helpless we are facing such majesty. I see the cloud heading for the Gulf of Catania; it passes bymy eyes, darkening the sky.We wish the wind did not change before we go down...

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Vito Finocchiaro

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