The eruption of Mount Etna has begun in Sicily: tourists are fleeing the elements (video)
Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, has erupted on the Italian island of Sicily. A massive cloud of ash and smoke rises from the crater. Tourists, who were nearby, hastily leave the area in an effort to save themselves. About this informs Mirror.
Etna had its first major eruption of the year, sending fountains of lava and a towering plume of ash and gas several kilometers (miles) high into the air. The event culminated when a pyroclastic flow formed by the interaction of magma with snow traveled more than 2 kilometers (more than a mile) into the Leone Valley in just one minute.
Columns of smoke can be seen from different parts of Sicily. According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Italy, the explosions are of high intensity and are almost continuous. At first, a red level of danger was introduced for aviation, but after three hours it was lowered to orange.
Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and at the same time the most active stratovolcano on the planet. A stratovolcano is a type of volcano usually associated with the classic image of a volcano: conical in shape with a central crater, and formed by many layers of lava accumulated during numerous eruptions over thousands of years.
The airport in Catania – the largest city in eastern Sicily – is periodically forced to suspend operations for several hours or even days due to the increased concentration of volcanic ash in the air, which makes safe flights impossible. An aviation alert was issued during the latest eruption, but the airport remained open.
Since Etna’s lava flows are mostly directed towards its desolate slopes, the towns and villages located on other parts of the mountain continue to live their normal lives. The volcano also provides benefits: in particular, it provides fertile soil for agriculture and attracts tourists.
