Experience Mount Etna live – a breathtaking natural spectacle!
Since 13.5.2022, the south-eastern crater has been active again. At the foot of the cone, on its northern side, a fissure has opened. A lava flow has been pouring into the Valle del Bove, the huge valley on the eastern side of Etna. This is a subterminal eruption, i.e. an eruption of a main crater, […]
Catania and the elephants
At first glance, Sicily and Catania have nothing to do with elephants. Yet a red elephant is emblazoned on Catania’s coat of arms and in the heart of the city in Cathedral Square (in front of Sant’Agata Cathedral), a black elephant with an obelisk on its back stands in the middle of a fountain – […]
Where do the names of Etna’s craters come from?
Mount Etna has not only 4 main craters, but also almost 300 lateral craters. Every hill we see in the vast Etna area is an extinct lateral crater. Lateral eruptions are so-called monogenetic eruptions, i.e. openings that are active only once and then are so firmly closed that they never erupt again. The main craters, […]
Etna Current – 13.5.2022
The south-eastern crater does not come to rest: the currently highest and most active main crater of Etna provides spectacular images again on the evening of 13.5.2022. This time the activity does not start with strombolian activity. A lava flow is descending on the northern side of the Southeast Crater and has already reached the […]
Sicily – Culinary Diversity from North to West
A round trip for all the senses Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea located in the southwest of Italy, is not only home to the highest active volcano in Europe, Mount Etna, but also has impressive cities to offer in addition to beautiful beaches. No matter which side of the island you are […]
The plant diversity of Etna
The Sicilian flora is characterized by many endemic species. They make up about 10% of the island’s plant species. In this article we want to tell you about some of the special plants that grow on Etna. Because anyone who thinks Mount Etna is a barren, lifeless stone desert is wrong. Etna provides habitat for […]
The Valle del Bove
The Valle del Bove (Valley of the Ox) is a huge valley about 5 km wide and about 7 km long (37 square kilometres in total) on the eastern side of Mount Etna, facing the sea. The rims of the valley are up to 1,000 metres high and some of them drop vertically. The formation […]
The formation of Sicily
We already told you in an earlier article (Lava tubes of Etna I) how Mount Etna was formed. However, how did Sicily originate? Originally, there was sea on the site of what is now Sicily. Plate tectonics, or more precisely the fact that the African plate is sliding under the Eurasian plate (subduction), has caused […]
The 1991 – 1993 eruption
The eruption that kept Zafferana in suspense! This time we report in more detail on the eruption between 1991 and 1993, which scared the inhabitants of Zafferana Etnea – a small town on the eastern side of the volcano. The beginning of the eruption On December 14, 1991, fractures opened both to the north and […]
The flag of Sicily
The flag of the (autonomous) region of Sicily (one of the 20 regions of Italy) features a decorated woman’s head on a red and yellow background. This flag, as we know it today, dates back to the 13th century. But the history of this symbol is much older. The colours of the background (red and […]