Mount Etna is erupting again.
The active volcano began shooting lava and gas early Tuesday, Feb. 19. Mt. Etna, in Eastern Sicily, is one of the most active volcanos in the world, and this marks its first major eruption of the year.
Mount Etna erupts often, and showed signs of imminent volcanic activity in January. Lava and strong flashes in Etna’s new southeast crater were visible from the Sicilian foothills. These often indicate that an eruption is soon to follow. And sure enough, four paroxysms (violent bursts of volcanic activity) occurred on Tuesday, spewing lava and gas into the air.
“[I’ve] followed the activity of Etna for many years, and with time you learn to know it as if it were your friend,” Klaus Dorschfeldt, a videographer and webmaster at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology told OurAmazingPlanet. “Following it constantly, [you] learn to be a keen observer and a minor change can lead to something important.” Dorschfeldt shot the accompanying video of the volcano erupting.
The volcano is the largest in Europe, and is about two and half times the height of Mt. Vesuvius, its historic neighbor famous for covering and preserving the ancient Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD. It’s believed that an Etna eruption in 396 BC thwarted a Carthaginian invasion of the ancient Greek city Syracuse.
Etna’s most destructive eruption in the modern era took place in March and April of 1669. During the five-week eruption, 10 villages were destroyed before the lava flow was diverted into the Mediterranean sea by the city walls of Catania.
Luckily, it’s highly unlikely this eruption will cause any damage.
