Europe’s tallest volcano, Mount Etna on the island of Sicily, began erupting on Tuesday in an impressive lava flow emerging from a fissure about 3,000 metres above sea level.
In the days leading up to the eruption, the volcano showed increased activity, including ash emissions and several small strombolian explosions – blasts of gas and magma – from its Southeast Crater.
Yesterday a seismic swarm, a series of earthquakes in close succession, hit the area near the town of Linguaglossa on the volcano’s northern side. The city was founded on a lava stream in 1566.
By this time, the lava flow had extended to over two kilometres (1.2 miles).
The first eruption began on the evening of February 8 and remains active, with the lava flow still emerging from the fissure at the southern base of the Bocca Nuova crater.
According to volcanologists, the current eruption is a typical sub-terminal eruption as it comes from a fracture, not one of the main craters.
The 3,330-metre volcano is believed to have the longest documented history of eruptions among all volcanos, with records dating back to 425 BC.
The volcano, known as a stratovolcano with a typically conical shape, is located above the convergent plate margin between the African and Eurasian plates.
It covers an area of 459 square miles, with a basal circumference of 87 miles. As a result, it is by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest – Mount Vesuvius.
Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils produced from this activity support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the Plain of Catania to the south.
Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, it has been designated a Decade Volcano by the UN – one of 16 identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive volcanoes.
In 396 BC, an eruption reportedly thwarted the Carthaginians (Punic people) in their attempt to advance on Syracuse during the Second Sicilian War, while a particularly violent explosion occurred in 112 BC, which resulted in several roof collapses in the town of Catania.
In more recent years, as many as 16 eruptions took place in 2001 alone.
In 2002 to 2003, a big eruption threw up a huge column of ash that could easily be seen from space and fell as far away as Libya, some 370 miles south across the Mediterranean Sea.
An eruption in March 2017 injured 10 people, including a BBC News television crew, after magma exploded upon contact with snow.
Last year, on two occasions – in July and August – Etna’s eruptions forced the closure of Catania Airport due to volcanic ash in the air. On August 14, the eruption was so violent that it sent an ash cloud nearly six miles into the atmosphere.
