Among the most active volcanoes in Europe is Mount Etna . Also known as Mount Etna, it is located on the east coast of Sicily in southern Italy. It is considered the largest active volcano in Europe, erupting every few years. This volcano attracts significant tourism and is the main source of income for the island. If you want to know more about recent activity, you can check here.
In this article we are going to tell you about the characteristics, eruptions and curiosities of the Etna volcano.
Key features
This volcano rises above the city of Catania on the island of Sicily. It has been growing for about 500.000 years and has had a series of eruptions that began in 2001. It has experienced several eruptions, including violent explosions and massive lava flows. More than 25% of Sicily's population lives on the slopes of Mount Etna , which is the island's main source of income, including agriculture (due to its rich volcanic soil) and tourism. To learn about other active volcanoes, you can visit this link.
At an altitude of more than 3.300 meters, it is the highest and widest aerial volcano on the European continent, the highest mountain in the Mediterranean basin and the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. It overlooks the Ionian Sea to the east, the Simito River to the west and south, and the Alcantara River to the north.
The volcano covers an area of ​​approximately 1.600 square kilometers, has a diameter of about 35 kilometers from north to south, a circumference of about 200 kilometers, and a volume of about 500 cubic kilometers. The characteristics of Mount Etna are unique and representative of the types of volcanoes found around the world.
From sea level to the mountain peaks, the landscape and habitat changes are breathtaking, along with its rich natural wonders. All of this makes this place unique for hikers, photographers, naturalists, volcanologists, those seeking spiritual freedom, and nature lovers who appreciate the earth and paradise. Eastern Sicily displays a wide variety of landscapes , but from a geological perspective, it also offers incredible diversity.
Etna volcano geology
Its geological characteristics indicate that Etna has been active since the end of the Neogene (i.e., the last 2,6 million years). This volcano has more than one center of activity. Several secondary cones form in the transverse rifts that extend from the center to the sides. The current structure of the mountain is the result of the activities of at least two major eruptive centers.
Within a distance of only about 200 kilometers, passing through the provinces of Messina, Catania, and Syracuse, lie two different tectonic plates with very different types of rocks, ranging from metamorphic to igneous and sedimentary rocks, a subduction zone, and numerous regional faults. Also present are Mount Etna, active volcanoes in the Aeolian Islands, and outcrops of ancient volcanic activity on the Hyblaean Mountains plateau.
There is a thick sedimentary basement beneath Mount Etna, which can reach an altitude of 1.000 meters, meaning the volcanic rock accumulated over 500.000 years is approximately 2.000 meters thick. This relates to the study of volcanoes in Italy, which exhibits some very interesting characteristics. If you would like to learn more about the activity of other volcanoes, you can visit the article at this link.
The north and west sides of the sedimentary rocks at the bottom of the volcano are Miocene clay-turbidite sequences (formed by sediments carried by ocean currents), while the south and east sides are rich marine sediments from the Pleistocene.
On the contrary, due to the hydrogeology of this volcano, the area is richer in water than the rest of Sicily. In fact, the lava is highly permeable, acting as an aquifer and resting on an impermeable, non-porous sedimentary base. We can imagine Mount Etna as a huge sponge that can absorb winter rain and spring snow. All this water travels through the volcano's body and eventually emerges in springs, especially near the contact between the impermeable and permeable rocks.
Eruptions and tectonic plates of the Etna volcano
Between 2002 and 2003, the largest series of volcanic eruptions in many years released huge plumes of ash, easily visible from space, as far away as Libya, across the Mediterranean Sea.
Seismic activity during the eruption caused the east side of the volcano to slide down two meters, and many houses on the flank of the volcano suffered structural damage. The eruption also completely destroyed Rifugio Sapienza on the south side of the volcano.
There are many theories about why Mount Etna is so active. Like other Mediterranean volcanoes such as Stromboli and Vesuvius, it sits at a subduction zone, where the African tectonic plate is being pushed beneath the Eurasian plate. Although they appear geographically close, Mount Etna is actually quite different from other volcanoes. It is part of a different volcanic arc. Instead of sitting directly on the subduction zone, Etna actually sits just in front of it.
Located on the active fault between the African plate and the Ionian microplate, they slide together underneath the Eurasian plate. Current evidence suggests that the much lighter ionic plates may have broken, some of which were pushed back by the much heavier African plates. Magma directly from the Earth's mantle is absorbed by the space formed by the inclined ionic plate.
This phenomenon may explain the type of lava produced by the eruption of Mount Etna, similar to the type of lava produced along deep-sea fissures, where magma from the mantle is forced through the crust. The lava from other volcanoes is of the type produced by the melting of existing crust rather than by the eruption of the mantle layer.
Curiosities
Some of the most striking curiosities of this volcano are the following:
- Appeared in a Star Wars movie
- There were several attempts to control the lava flows that threatened to destroy the city of Catania.
- It's a stratovolcano. This type of volcano is considered one of the most dangerous due to its highly explosive eruptions.
- Etna's name means "I burn."
- Some of the volcano's lava is 300.000 years old.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the Etna volcano and its characteristics.