Etna

Etna (ancient Aetna), volcano, southern Italy, on the eastern coast of Sicily. The base of Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, covers an area of about 1,605 sq km (620 sq mi) and its height, which changes with time, was 3,323 m (10,902 ft) in the early 1990s.

The mountain is an immense cone, with its regularity of outline broken by fissures and about 250 minor cones. The Valle del Bove, an abyss, 4.8 km (3 mi) wide, on the eastern flank of the mountain, is the original crater, the centre of the volcano having shifted to form the present crater on the summit. The slopes of the mountain are divided into three zones of vegetation: the fertile cultivated zone, which extends to about 915 m (3,000 ft); the forested zone; and the desert zone, which extends upwards from about 1,920 m (6,300 ft), with the highest peaks covered by snow most of the year. The cultivated zone is densely populated and contains numerous villages and the towns of Catania, Acireale, and Nicolosi. From Catania, the main station on the circumferential railway, a road extends to 1,881 m (6,171 ft) connecting with a cable line that reaches 2,915 m (9,564 ft).

The first recorded eruption of Etna occurred in the 18th century bc, although geological studies show that it was active before that period. Since then about 90 recorded eruptions have occurred, the most disastrous of which were in ad 1169, when the town of Catania was destroyed with a loss of 15,000 lives, and in 1669, when more than 20,000 people perished. In 1928 two villages were almost completely buried by a flow of lava and in 1947 two new craters were formed by renewed activity of the volcano. Eruptions also occurred in 1971, 1981, 1983, and in 1992, when monitored explosions were used to control the lava flow. In 2001 several eruptive episodes occurred, culminating in July and early August when lava flows threatened the town of Nicolosi; the eruptions opened six fissures in the mountain and changed the shape of its cone. Another explosion was recorded in October 2002.