Dozens of tourists flock to Sicily to see the eruption of one of Europe’s most active volcanoes, Mount Etna.
Footage taken on Monday shows red-hot lava pouring from the crater. The video also shows people watching and photographing the natural phenomenon.
“There are numerous alpine and volcanic guides from the Regional College working here. Every day, we accompany small groups of tourists so that they can enjoy this amazing spectacle on the southern slope of Etna,” guide Marco Puleo said.
Stefano Branca, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, noted that the observed activity is not typical.
“The eruption rate is about one cubic metre per hour, if not less. Strongly degassed magma that was inside the south-eastern crater is passively emerging from the vent at an altitude of 2,980 metres. Yesterday, the lava reached 2,450 metres, and this is probably the limit for such a low eruption rate,” Branca said.
On June 2, scientists recorded extremely high levels of ground vibrations near Etna, indicating intense magma movement. The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Toulouse warned that the column of mixture ejected into the air had reached a height of about 6,400 metres.
Mount Etna rises 3,450 metres above sea level and has been in a state of almost continuous eruption since 2013. Five major eruptions have been recorded in 2024.
