03-06-2025
Deadly toxic aftermath of Mt. Etna eruption that sent tourists running for their lives
Mount Etna's eruption on Monday morning likely expelled tens of thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide gas, according to experts from Italy 's volcano monitoring body.
If high concentrations of sulfur dioxide are inhaled for several minutes, humans can experience burning in the nose and throat, breathing difficulties and death.
This brings a whole new context to the dozens of tourists who fled for their lives as Europe's most active volcano spewed a column of ash that quickly billowed miles high.
Salvatore Giammanco, a geophysicist at Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), said the level of sulfur dioxide released by Mount Etna during an eruption can reach 20,000 tons in a day.
'The summit typically releases between 2,000 and 3,000 tons of sulfur dioxide gas per day,' he said in 2010. 'Before an eruption it can reach 20,000 tons per day.'
This latest eruption was the strongest since February 2021, according to INGV's Etna Observatory director Stefano Branca.
'Since February 2021, such intense volcanic activity hasn't been recorded,' he told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The eruption was caused by part of Etna's southeast crater collapsing, causing a 'pyroclastic flow,' a fast-moving mass of hot ash, lava and hot gas.
Pyroclastic flow can travel down a mountain at speeds from 60 miles per hour to more than 200 miles per hour, which makes running away impossible if you are too close at the time of eruption.
After Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique erupted in 1902, the following pyroclastic flows destroyed the city of St. Pierre and killed 30,000 people.
Some 40 tourists were in the vicinity of Mount Etna when it erupted, according to CNN.
Luckily, no one was injured as a result of the eruption.
One of the tourists exclusively spoke to about her experience.
Jamie Boone, from Washington DC, said the volcano had been 'active all morning', but nobody had any idea it was set to erupt so violently.
Footage Boone shared to social media showed a huge plume of smoke filled the skies after the eruption.
She was seen running with her fellow hikers as the volcano exploded and an avalanche of boiling rock was sent hurtling down the side of the mountain.
'That was when it got a little scary and we weren't sure how much danger we were in,' she said, describing the eruption as 'loud and explosive.'
'That's when our guide told us to run to get away,' she added.
'We were glad to have an experienced guide telling the others what to do, as some were going toward it.
'We were mid-mountain and that was scary, I can't imagine how it felt being at the top right by the crater. Our guide told us if it had collapsed outward instead of inward, we and a lot of others would have been in real trouble.'
Other tourists didn't have as much urgency and were seen photographing the billowing smoke.
The tourism company that had customers on Mount Etna at the time of the eruption told The Independent that tours have already restarted.
Go Etna said that while tours are open to the public, guides cannot go up to Mount Etna's summit nor can they go any further than 2,900 meters up the mountain.
At present, there is 'no danger for the population' of Sicily, according to the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani.
