‘Spectacular' but ‘harmless' Mount Etna eruption sends tourists scrambling
Spectacular clouds of ashy smoke filled the sky above Sicily in southern Italy after Mount Etna erupted, sending some tourists scrambling down the volcano — though authorities said there was no safety risk.
Around 11:30 a.m. on Monday, surveillance cameras captured a pyroclastic flow — defined by the U.S. Geological Survey as a 'chaotic mixture of rock fragments, gas, and ash' that travels quickly and is typically hotter than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit — around Etna's southeast crater, according to the volcanic monitoring team of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
The eruption was probably caused by 'the collapse of material from the northern flank' of Etna's southeast crater, INGV Vulcani said. It caused lava to flow in three directions — south, east and north — and left behind a fine layer of 'reddish material' that was carried away by winds and dispersed over cities west and northwest of Etna, the institute said.
The eruption briefly sparked air travel warnings, with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Toulouse, France, issuing a red alert for 'strong Strombolian activity' at Etna on Monday morning and Catania Airport in Sicily raising its level of alert, according to the Associated Press.
The eruption was brief: INGV Vulcani said it had ended by 8:20 p.m. local time.
Though the smoke, ash and lava combined to form an ominous picture, the lava flows did not breach a natural containment area 'and posed no danger to the population,' Sicilian President Renato Schifani said, according to the AP. The main area of danger was at Etna's summit, which was closed to visitors at the time for safety, the AP reported, citing Stefano Branca, an INGV official in Catania.
Videos posted online showed people running and scrambling down the flank of Etna with the ash clouds in the background — though some instead appeared to get closer to take photos. Etna is a popular hiking destination for tourists visiting the island of Sicily.
Etna is Europe's most active volcano, and Monday was its 14th eruptive episode in less than three months.
It was 'spectacular' but 'harmless,' Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology's Etna Observatory, wrote on X. Because it was seen by so many people — including visitors who were on the volcano at the time, though far from the eruption zone — it could become 'one of the most famous pyroclastic flows of our time,' he added.
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