Mt Etna

Last week I was on Sicily on a field course looking an volcanic processes on the active volcano Mt Etna with people on my degree course.

One of the many lava flows (2001 I think) on Etna's flanks. Or Mordor. Take your pick.

A intruded dike, you can see the chilled margins really clearly on each side. The black sand on the floor is tephra.

The undergraduates on the course, inside one of the several lava tubes we explorered.

It was an excellent week in good company and I learnt loads, but I suppose I should wait to pass judgment fully until I sit the exam. I'd be quite keen to back, for two main reasons, firstly I flicked through a Italien ski touring guidebook out there and it looks like there is some quite good skiing to be had on the mountain (skiing volcanoes is the thing to do now isn't it?). The other reason would be for caving in the lava tubes, we visited and got into three separate tube systems but saw loads more, with SRT gear (and CO2 monitors) and similar theres a whole other world you can explore below the surface of the flows in in fissures.