Italy’s mount Etna – Europe’s tallest active volcano has a new summit

26 Aug, 2021
Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

Mount Etna's southeastern crater has grown in height after six months of activity, Italy's volcano monitoring agency said Tuesday, making Europe's tallest active volcano taller than ever.

Located on the east coast of Sicily, Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Its eruptions occur at the summit, where there are four craters: the Voragine and the Bocca Nuova, formed in 1945 and 1928 respectively, the Northeast Crater and the Southeast Crater, which has recently been the most active of the four.

The famous volcano's youngest and most active crater has risen to a new record of 3.357 meters above sea level, surpassing the former summit crater by 30 meters. Etna reached a record height of 3.350 meters in 1981, but a partial collapse of the crater rim reduced that to 3.326 meters in 2018.

Some 50 episodes of ash eruptions and lava fountains, some reaching as high as 1.500 meters, from the southeastern crater since mid-February have led to a "conspicuous transformation of the volcano's outline", with its actual dimensions calculated through satellite images taken in July 2021.

Source: Forbes

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