Rumbles on Mt. Etna

A steam plume rises from the summit of Mt. Etna, bearing evidence that this volcano remains active and dangerous.

Mt. Etna lies on Sicily's eastern coast. At nearly 11,000 feet, it is Europe's highest volcano. Records dating back to 1500 BC chronicle repeated eruptions. The most violent historical eruption occurred in 1669 AD, when lava flows destroyed dozens of villages on the mountain's lower slopes and submerged parts of the city of Catania.

This history of activity is continuing. More than a dozen episodes of eruptions have occurred during the present century. Some lasted for years.

Mt. Etna began to erupt again on July 30, 1995. The eruptions grew in violence during November of that same year. Two, on November 9 and 14, were accompanied by fountains of lava and the ejection of lava bombs and ash. During the November 9 outburst, the lava bombs measured up to ten feet across. Ash was hurled as far as the town of Siracusa, nearly 50 miles away.

The above image was taken from the Space Shuttle Columbia, March 1994.

More Cool Stuff

For more information on Mt. Etna and other volcanoes around the globe, go to "Volcano World," a Web site of the University of North Dakota supported by NASA:

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu

To obtain more detailed information about Mt. Etna, go to the Istituto Internazionale di Vulcanologia, Catania, Italy:

http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it:80

Check out other observations in the Observation of the Week Archive.