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Mt Etna Volcano - John Seach
Sicily, Italy
37.73 N, 15.00 E,
summit elevation 3350 m
Shield volcano
Mt Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe. It has an elliptical base (38 x 47 km) and a maximum elevation of about 3350 m.
The volcano dominates the landscape of NE Sicily, Italy.
Mt Etna has the longest period of documented eruptions in the world. Etna is noted for the wide variety of eruption styles.
The volcano is at its most spectacular when when both summit and flank eruptions occur simultaneously.
John Seach at summit of Mt Etna in 1999.
The structure of Mt Etna consists of a series of nested stratovolcanoes, characterised by summit calderas, the most important one being the Ellittico Caldera, which formed about 14,000-15,000 years ago.
Historically Mt Etna has produced effusive activity; however several pyroclastic deposits related to Plinian eruptions have been identified in the Holocene sequence. Under open vent conditions, ash emission only occurs during flank eruptions of Mt Etna volcano.
Structural and seismic data indicate that the regional deformation in the Etnean
area is generally dominated by N-S compression as the result of subduction of the African tectonic plate under the Eurasian plate.
2009 Eruptions
Eruptions resumed at Mt Etna volcano, Italy after 4 months of inactivity. On 7th November Strombolian eruptions commenced at the eastern flank of South East crater. On 8th November at 07:51 am there was a magnitude 4.4 earthquake beneath the southwest flank of Mt Etna at a depth of 10 km.
2008 Eruptions
A paroxysmal eruption began at south-east crater on 10 May 2008. This was followed on 13th May by two fissures opening between 3,050 and 2,650 m elevation on Etna’s upper east side. The fissures sent lava flows 5 km into the Valle del Bove.
July 2006 Eruption
On 14 July 2006 at 2330 hr a fissure opened on the E flank of the Southeast Crater. Two vents along the fissure produced a lava flow which spread 3 km E to the Valle del Bove. The eruption ended on 24 July.
2004-2005 Eruption
An effusive eruption that started on 7 September 2004 on the W wall of the Valle del Bove. The eruption ended in March 2005. During the flank lava flows, there were no explosions at the summit.
2002-2003 Flank Eruption
The 2002-2003 eruption was one of the most explosive flank eruptions in the past 150 years at Mt Etna. The magma mixed with groundwater and was phreatomagmatic. Ash fell as far away as the Greek island of Cefalonia. Between 26 and 27 October 2002, strong seismicity accompanied the opening of fissures on the S and NE flanks of the volcano. Along the 4-km-long NE-fissure, eruptions consisted of Strombolian, Hawaiian fountaining and minor phreatomagmatic activity. On 27
October 2002, during the opening of the S-fissure, a 1-km-long curtain of fire fed a grey plume that reached a height of more than 3 km above the fissure. Between 20 and 21 November, a new effusive vent opened at the SSE base of the 2750 m cinder cone, causing a lava flow that threatened Rifugio Sapienza at an altitude of 1920 m. The effusive activity at the S vent finished on 28 January 2003.
2001-2002 Eruption
This was the first in a new series of flank eruptions at the volcano. Etna's flank eruptions have previously occurred at intervals of 1.7 years, during each series. In 17th July– 9th August 2001 the eruption of Mt. Etna caused significant damage to tourist facilities, and for several days threatened the town of Nicolosi on the S flank of the volcano. Seven eruptive fissures were active, five on the S flank between 3,050 and 2,100 m altitude, and two on the NE flank between 3,080 and 2,600 m elevation. The most voluminous of which reached a length of 6.9 km. One of the eccentric vents, at 2,570 m elevation, was the site of vigorous phreatomagmatic activity as the dike cut through a shallow aquifer, during both the initial and closing stages of the eruption. the eruption confirmed a trend, initiated during the past 50 years, toward higher production rates and more frequent eruptions, which occurred in the early to mid seventeenth century.
Between 1971 and 2001, the Southeast Crater was the most productive of the four summit craters of Mount Etna, with activity that can be compared, on a global scale, to the opening phases of the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō-Kūpaianaha eruption of Kīlauea volcano, Hawai‘i.