Mount Etna

Etna seen from a plane.

Mount Etna is a volcano on the east coast of Sicily, part of southern Italy. It is the largest active volcano in Europe. Mount Etna erupts every few years.

Etna's most destructive eruption in historic times started on 11 March 1669. It produced lava flows that destroyed 10 villages and reached the town of Catania five weeks later, on 15 April. Many buildings were destroyed and few people were killed.

Etna's 2002 eruption, photographed from the ISS

Major twentieth century eruptions occurred in 1928, 1949, 1971, 1983 and 1992, as well as the 2001 eruption. In 1971, it buried the Etna Observatory (built in the late 19th century) under lava. The 1992 eruption saw the town of Zafferana threatened by a lava flow, but successful diversion efforts saved the town with the loss of only one building a few hundred metres outside it.

In 2002–2003, the biggest series of eruptions for many years threw up a huge column of ash that could easily be seen from space and fell as far away as Libya, on the far side of the Mediterranean Sea. Seismic activity in this eruption caused the eastern flanks of the volcano to slip by up to two metres, and many houses on the flanks of the volcano were damaged. The eruption also destroyed the Rifugio Sapienza, a ski resort on the southern flank of the volcano.

Mount Etna Media

Multidirectional Hillshade relief of Mount Etna
February 2021 eruption seen from Naval Air Station Sigonella
Simplified geological cross section of the Mt. Etna volcanic complex (not to scale), showing its evolution from an early stage of submarine fissural activity, producing pillow lavas and a first shield volcano, to a subsequent mixed effusive and explosive activity building three main stratovolcano stages (Monte Calanna; Trifoglietto 1; Trifoglietto 2), then to the present Mongibello system (which has developed in two successive stages from about 15,000 years ago).
Mount Etna from the south with the smoking peak in the upper left and a lateral crater in the centre
An artist's impression of the 1766 eruption
Video of Etna's November 2013 eruption
A lateral crater of the 2002–2003 eruption near the Torre del Filosofo, about 450 m (1,480 ft) below Etna's summit
House destroyed by lava on the slopes of Etna
Southern flank of Mount Etna showing lateral cones and flow from the eruption of 2001.
Smoke ring above Mount Etna observed on 9th August 2023