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Mount Etna (or Aetna) is an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily (Italian Sicilia), close to Messina and Catania. It is 3,340 m (10,958 ft) high. On the safe part of its hills a famous wine is produced.
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2 Recent eruptions 3 Ancient eruptions 4 Legends 5 Other Detail - requires heavy editing |
Mount Etna is about three times higher than Vesuvius, rising to nearly eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, and about 87 miles circumferance at its base.
Etna is highly active, and currently the volcano has an eruption every few years. The constant monitoring, and the relative tranquillity of these eruptions, mean that there is no danger to human life. But sometimes, the lava streams burn down houses and gardens. On at least one occasion, a big lava stream has been diverted to a nearby empty valley to protect a village, though others have been lost.
Only vauge records of Etna's ancient eruptions survive. The Greek poet Pindar is the earliest writer who makes mention of its activity. He refers to it in his First Pythian Ode of about 470 BC, Strophe B, 1. The eruption discussed probably took place shortly before that date, since when there have been about 60 (?) recorded eruptions.
According to Carey's translation of Pindar:
Owing to the great height of Mount Etna, the lava seldom rises so
far as to flow from the summit. It more frequently bursts forth
from the flanks of the mountain; and in this manner there have been
formed numerous smaller cones, of which several have craters of
their own. Hence Etna is rather a group of volcanoes than a single
cone; but all these subordinate volcanic hills cluster round the
flanks of the great central summit. Etna may thus be regarded as a
fertile mother of mountains, with all her children around her. Some
of these hills, her offspring, are covered with forests and rich
vegetation--such having enjoyed a lasting repose. Others are still
arid and bare, having been more recently formed. Owing to this
peculiarity in its structure, Etna does not present that conical
aspect which characterizes most other volcanoes. Strange as it may
seem, there are, on the sides of the mountain, caverns which the
Sicilians use for storing ice. Some of these caverns are of vast
extent. One called Fossa della Palomba measures, at its entrance,
625 feet in circumference, and has a depth of about 78 feet. This
great cavity, however, forms merely the vestibule to a series of
others, which are perfectly dark.
Another striking feature of Mount Etna is the Val del Bove. It is a
deep valley, presenting, when viewed from above, somewhat of the
appearance of an amphitheatre, It stretches from near the summit
down to the upper limit of the wooded region of the mountain, and
has a remarkably desolate aspect--presenting a vast expanse of bare
and rugged lava.
Of the numerous eruptions of Etna, one of the most memorable was
that of 1669, when on the flank of the mountain above Nicolosi,
about half way between Catania and the top of the great crater,
there was formed an immense rent about twelve miles long, from
which a vast torrent of lava descended. After flowing for several
miles, and destroying a part of Catania in its course, it entered
the sea, and formed a small promontory, which has since proved very
useful as a breakwater. But besides this stream, there were at the
same time thrown up such immense quantities of ashes, cinders,
stones, and other matters, that they formed two conical hills, more
than three hundred feet in height above the slope of the mountain
from which they rose, and measuring nearly two miles in
circumference at their base. These hills were named Monti Rossi.
Mount Etna was in activity in 1865; but a previous
eruption in 1852 was of greater violence. It began, as usual, with
hollow underground rumblings, and the ascent of dense columns of
vapour, mingled with dust and ashes, high into the air. These were
speedily whirled into enormous eddies by fierce whirlwinds. Two new
mouths were formed on the side of the mountain, and these vomited
forth immense streams of lava, which rushed with the vehemence of a
torrent down the steep. The violence of the commotion increasing,
the two mouths were, by the crumbling of the intervening rocks,
blended into one, and then huge fragments of the broken rock were
hurled to a great height, along with vast quantities of hot stones,
cinders, and black sand. Increasing quantities of lava were now
poured from the greatly enlarged opening, and these formed on the
plains below a great river of liquid fire, nearly two miles in
breadth, and between seven and eight feet in depth, which advanced
at the rate of upwards of a hundred feet in an hour, carrying
before it devastation and ruin. Its course being through a highly
cultivated country, the damage it inflicted was immense. This
eruption continued for several months, with only short intervals of
rest.
It has more than once happened, that the lava-streams of Etna, in
their descent from the crater of eruption, have come to a
precipitous wall of rock, over which they have plunged in a cascade
similar to that formed by the lava of Vesuvius in 1855, but on a
less magnificent scale, as respects the height of the fall. One of
these occasions was during the eruption of 1771, and another during
that of 1819.
The principal cone of Mount Etna was ascended in 1834 by Messrs.
Elie de Beaumont and Leopold von Buch. The former describes what
they saw in the following terms:--"It was to us a moment of
surprise difficult to describe, when we found ourselves
unexpectedly on the margin--not, indeed, of the great crater--but
of an almost circular gulf, nearly three hundred feet in diameter,
which does not touch the great crater save at a small part of its
circumference. We peered eagerly into this nearly cylindrical
funnel; but vain was our search into the secret of its volcanic
action. From the almost horizontal tops of the nearly vertical
steeps, nothing can be descried but the upper cone. On trying to
reckon those one below another, vision becomes gradually lost in
the perfect darkness beneath. No sound issues from this darkness.
There are only exhaled slightly sulphurous white vapours, chiefly
steam. The dismal aspect of this black and silent gulf, in which
our view was lost--its dark moist sides, along which crept, in a
languid and monotonous manner, long flakes of vapour of a sombre
gray--the great crater to which this narrow gulf is attached, with
its confused heap of diverse substances, coloured yellow, gray,
red, like the image of chaos--all presented around us an aspect
quite funereal and sepulchral."
The French geologist, in having escaped from his visit to the
crater with nothing worse than a fit of the vapours, came off
better than Empedocles, the Sicilian philosopher, in the days of
old: for, as the story goes, this inquisitive sage, being very
anxious to have a peep into the crater, and venturing too near,
toppled in altogether, and nothing more was seen of him, except one
of his sandals, which was vomited up by the volcano--thus conveying
to his friends an intimation of the manner of his death.Appearance and height
Recent eruptions
Ancient eruptions
Virgil also describes the mountain very forcibly in the Æneid,
lib. iii. 570. Dryden's translation reads:--Legends
According to a local legend, the soul of Elizabeth I of England now resides in Etna; a deal she did with the devil in exchange for his help during her reign.
Other Detail - requires heavy editing
1669 Formation of Monti Rossi
Eruption of 1852 -- Whirlwinds -- Lava torrents
Cascades of lava
Description of crater
Empedocles
