Pretty awesome pix of Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt eruption HERE.
TANGENTIALLY RELATED: L’AQUILA, Italy — More than 150 people died and tens of thousands were left 
homeless when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook central Italy early Monday, seriously damaging historic buildings in the medieval hill towns of Abruzzo Region east of Rome, officials said. Most of the deaths and damage were centered in L’Aquila, a picturesque fortress town at the quake’s epicenter. Outside a damaged convent, a dozen nuns still dressed in bright orange and blue bathrobes climbed into a van headed to an assistance center. Sister Lidia, the mother superior, said an 82-year old nun had died of shock. “The quake, it was very strong,” she said. The narrow streets of the historic center were filled with rubble, and parked cars were crushed under large blocks of debris. The damage to historic monuments was extensive. The cupola of the 18th-century Santa Maria del Suffragio church cracked open like an eggshell, exposing the stucco patterns inside the dome. Part of the transept of the 13th-century Santa Maria di Collemaggio basilica collapsed, as well as a small cupola in the 18th-century church of Sant’Agostino. Other historic buildings were damaged in at least 26 surrounding towns in the Apennine mountains. “Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety,” Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of Parliament, said in Rome before the chamber observed a moment of silence. MORE
SIMONE SECCI, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Jonathan, Thank you very much for your concern, we are ok. The starting point of the big earthquake was 3 hours away from here, but we felt it! My house trembled for a minute at least, we also felt all the other little earthquakes, has been really weird. In that area in the last week there have been earthquakes everyday including the one that killed almost 90 people last night. Sure I can write a little thing about it. Hope everything is ok in Philly. Best, Simone…DEVELOPING