Authorities introduced the closure of two main airports in Sicily after Mount Etna started spewing sizzling lava.
Flights are suspended at Catania International Airport till no less than 8pm and at Comiso Airport till no less than 3pm immediately.
British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet flights to Catania have already been halted after Mount Etna’s newest eruption.
But the place precisely is Mount Etna and the way harmful is it? Read on beneath for every part it’s essential to learn about Etna’s efficiency.
The volcano was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 and attracts hundreds of holiday makers yearly. Pictured: An aerial view of Mount Etna
Mount Etna is situated on the east coast of Sicily, Italy’s largest island, between the cities of Catania and Messina
Where is Mount Etna?
Mount Etna is situated on the east coast of Sicily, Italy’s largest island, between the cities of Catania and Messina.
Located between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates, it erupts nearly consistently, with various levels of severity.
With a top of three,324 m, Mount Etna is the very best energetic volcano in Europe and has erupted recurrently over the previous 500,000 years.
Scientists consider that Etna was initially a submarine volcano that progressively grew above sea stage due to the consistently solidifying lava.
The closure of Catania International Airport attributable to Mount Etna eruptions is nothing new, because it was pressured to shut for twenty-four hours in May 2023 after smoke and ash from Mount Etna blanketed the runway.
In 2021, an enormous eruption despatched lava about 3,000 ft into the air. Experts stated the exercise was a stage of anger “rarely seen for decades.”
How harmful is Mount Etna?
Europe’s most energetic volcano can awaken from its slumber a number of occasions a yr, ejecting lava and ash excessive above the Mediterranean island.
While vacationers could take into account it harmful to go to, it’s really secure to climb because it has not erupted violently for a whole lot of years.
The first recorded eruption occurred in 1500 BC.
Mount Etna has erupted many occasions, the principle eruption being an earthquake in 1169 that killed an estimated 15,000 individuals.
The 700,000-year-old volcano is the second most energetic on Earth, after Mount Kilauea in Hawaii.
Lava flows downhill as Mount Etna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, erupts in May 2022.
Each yr it produces greater than ten million tons of lava and greater than 7 million tons of carbon dioxide, water and sulfur dioxide.
However, since 1922, Etna has not had a serious eruption.
The blasts usually create a spectacle of flaming lava, however cloud cowl on the wet day masked the view of this eruption, in response to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), which intently screens Mount Etna with devices mounted on its slopes. are put in.
The volcano was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013 and attracts hundreds of holiday makers yearly.
