Ash plume from Mt. Etna : In northeastern Sicily, Mt. Etna continues to erupt. NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image of the volcano on July 22, 2001. The eruption has opened five vents in the mountain, and is releasing a cloud of ash that can be seen stretching southeastward over the Mediterranean Sea. The red box overlaid on Mt. Etna shows where MODIS detected heat escaping from the volcano on July 24, 2001. [See the southward view of the same eruption, captured two days earlier.] Mt. Etna has a complex and asymmetrical shape because it did not grow from a single large cone, but rather as a series of volcanic openings [see the space radar image] that were created and then collapsed on themselves over time. Today the mountain is dotted with hundreds of minor pyroclastic cones, built from the debris of previous eruptions, as well as numerous eruptive cones and large fissures, or cracks. The current eruption includes an explosive fissure along the south flank of the mountain, and lava is creeping its way toward the town of Nicolosi.