Video: Mount Etna erupts as BBC journalists run for their lives

[xeni]

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/16/video-mount-etna-erupts-as-bb.html

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[knoxblox]

I read that Etna only has 77 confirmed deaths in recorded history (around 1500 B.C.), but I wonder how many burnt bottoms?

Also, what a fantastic accent Francesca has!

[LutherBlisset]

One of this rugged-camera companies and one of these drone companies or even better running-around robots should team up and try to make a lava-proof camera thing.

Could be a nice publicity stunt for a company building robots meant for emergencies. Fukushima comes to mind. Lava and radiation proof, then.

[CanadianBeaver]

I’m getting real tired of your shaky cam hollywood

p.s. glad people are not too rocked

[Boundegar]

I would think that near an active volcano would pretty much top the list of places not to be, and scientists probably understand the risks better than I do. Journalists, on the other hand…

[TheGreatParis]

@Boundegar

I would think that near an active volcano would pretty much top the list of places not to be, and scientists probably understand the risks better than I do. Journalists, on the other hand…

They were doing a story on, and were being escorted by volcanologists.

[Nelsie]

Yep, vulcanologists never risk their lives near live volcanoes:

[Boundegar]

Eyeroll.

Did I say never, or did I say understand the risks?

[Papasan]

Hope they all made it out alive.

[manybellsdown]

Did someone say Vulcanologist?

[Mister44]

That’s why I like my volcanoes like I like my women - extinct.

No wait, I am thinking dinosaurs. That’s how I like my dinosaurs. Man, I am so bad at this.

[Kaleberg]

No one likes to talk about it, but vulcanology is probably the most dangerous science if you ever do field work. Chemists like to brag about the dangerous stuff they work with, but they get to do it under relatively controlled conditions. Science magazine had an article on this some years back, and obit for obit, the vulcanologists were the ones stuck in the caldera.

[GulliverFoyle]

@anon32019413

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 it was like a bomb. Equivalent to 24 Megatons of TNT (that’s around 50 billion pounds…). Early nuclear weapons were approximately 0.1% of that in energy.

In a loose sense, volcanoes are like really slow nuclear bombs, since the Earth is internally heated by deep radioisotopes.

[larrycovey]

If you think that’s the height of dangerous journalism, try covering the Trump administration.

[euansmith]

You like your dinosaurs big breasted and will?

[hecep]

I think they ran so to get the scoop on the story.

[cementimental]

These BBC journalists can’t catch a break… I mean one minute you’re running for your lives, and then on top of that a volcano starts erupting!