Explosions in the sky: why Mount Etna erupting is as pretty as a painting

Turi Caggegi’s recent volcanic YouTube footage is uncannily similar to Joseph Wright’s 18th-century art of Vesuvius – both capture an Italian night on fire

Images of Mount Etna spewing molten rock and fire in its latest eruption reveal once again the astonishing and dangerous beauty of volcanoes. These living mountains can be colossally destructive, yet Etna’s frequent eruptions are “Strombolian” events, sending superheated rock and fire-lit ash high in the air without the fast-moving pyroclastic flows that can be devastating to human life.

Over the weekend, Sicilian journalist Turi Caggegi was able to get near the summit with a video camera and capture the wonder of a night on fire. Apart from their luminous beauty, these images of an Italian volcano vindicate one of Britain’s greatest painters.

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