Tuesday, 8 December 2015. On Thursday, 3 December, there was recorded one of the most impressive eruptions of the past 20 years of Etna; the highest active volcano in Europe, releasing an extraordinary column of smoke from seven kilometers of height.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology recorded a short but very violent eruption between the 02:30 and 03:10 local time, which caused the closure of an airport 70 km away and the routing of flights at the airports of Catania; a city at the foot of the volcano, and of Reggio Calabria, located in Calabria, the tip of the italian boot from several kilometers away where there was to clean the paths by the accumulated ash.
Etna, is an active volcano located on the east coast of Sicily, in the south island of Italy. It has around 3,342 meters of height and covers an area of 1,190 km2, with a basal circumference of 140 kilometers. Originated by the active system of tectonic plates the Earth. Morphologically the Etna is a gigantic mass that occupies a large extension in the eastern part of the island of Sicily.
One of the main features of this volcano is the ability to erupt in many places in the flanks, but the main area of the volcano with its four craters has been stable for decades and active for a long time. The complex cone of the four craters are: the Voragine and the Bocca Nuova (which are located where before was the central crater); and the craters NE and SE. In addition, it has hundreds of cones in the flanks of the volcano. The crater named Voragine produces the most intense activity with fountains of lava and columns of magma, ash and gas.
The Mount Etna volcano has been active for thousands of years, it had not entered in eruption since two years ago (2013); however, the experts were able to predict that soon was going to happen, due to the apparent activity in the interior of the crater in the last month. It is the highest active of the Eurasian plate, the second in reference to the political Europe after Teide and the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps.
According to its eruption, it is a strombolian volcano. Has a crater of whose path splits underground ducts, all lead to small adventitious craters that open on the slopes of mount in the top area. The African plate is moving under the European plate, and to the extent that the Eurasian plate moves under the earth, it melts.
The first known eruption of Etna was recorded by Diodoro Siculo and the Roman poet Virgil (I century BC), he made a description of it in the Aeneid; the masterpiece of Classical Latin literature.
ALFA