Mt. Etna Pours Out Lava Stream

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 503, 5 November 1928, Page 9

Mt. Etna Pours Out Lava Stream

Villages Threatened: Trees Flare Like Torches

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reccl. 10.45 a.m. ' ROME, Sunday. FOLLOWING heavy rainstorms, Mount Etna became active front the crater, 6,500 feet up, which was made by the 1865 eruption. A lava stream a mile wide is advancing on the village of St. Allio, devastating the intervening forests. Trees 100 years old are flaring up like matchwood. Isolated farms on. the mountains have been evacuated. The inhabitants of the villages threatened are ready to flee at any moment. A later message from Rome says that Mount Etna’s lava stream is now six miles long. The whole 2,000 inhabitants have evacuated St. Allio.

Alt. Etna, which is situated near the east coast of Sicily, is 10,755 feet high. The lower slopes, up to about 3,000 feet, are well cultivated and thickly populated. For about 4,000 feet above this region the mountain is covered with forests of pines, birches and other trees. Nearer the top is a barrent waste under snow for most of the year. The volcano, which has been active since ancient times, erupted in a. barren waste under snow for most 1865, 1879, ISB6, 1892 (when a new crater was formed), 1899, and 1910. The most recent activity was observed in May, 1914.