Friday

Mount Etna, Europe’s highest active Volcano located near Sicily, is currently erupting, much to the delight of anyone in the area with a camera and YouTube account, many of whom are posting videos of the eruption as it happens.

According to Wikipedia, Mount Etna is a stratovolcano, or a composite volcano made up of layers of strata from earlier eruptions whose lava quickly hardened due to its viscous nature without doing much damage or causing much harm.

Mt. Etna is Europe’s largest volcano, standing 10,922 feet high and it erupted earlier today. Prior to the eruption, the mountain was 69 feet higher than it was 30 years earlier. Being in a state of nearly constant activity, Mount Etna is not only Europe’s largest volcano, it is also one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

Below are a few videos of Mount Etna’s most recent eruption, which occurred on January 5th, 2012.

Etna’s eruption hadn’t disrupted any activity in the area and all airports, including the Catania Fonatanrossa airport, the region’s biggest airport, but authorities are monitoring the situation, which hasn’t been much more than ash being spewed a few miles in the air.

Here’s a bit more on Mount Etna from Wikipedia:

Thousands of years ago, the eastern flank of the mountain experienced a catastrophic collapse, generating an enormous landslide in an event similar to that seen in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The landslide left a large depression in the side of the volcano, known as ‘Valle del Bove’ (Valley of the Ox). Research published in 2006 suggested this occurred around 6000 BC, and caused a huge tsunami, which left its mark in several places in the eastern Mediterranean. It may have been the reason the settlement of Atlit Yam (Israel), now below sea level, was suddenly abandoned around that time.

The steep walls of the valley have suffered subsequent collapses on numerous occasions. The strata exposed in the valley walls provide an important and easily accessible record of Etna’s eruptive history.

According to Novinite, a new crater has been formed, possibly as a result of the current eruptions.

Source


Here are some videos of the Mount Etna eruption:








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