Italy’s Mount Etna has a new peak
One of the craters on Italy’s Mount Etna has grown in height after six months of activity, making Europe’s tallest active volcano even taller.
The southeastern crater, one of the volcano’s youngest and most active, has risen to a new record of 3,357 metres above sea level, according to the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Catania, Sicily.
“Thanks to the analysis and processing of satellite images, the southeast crater is now much higher than its ‘older brother’, the northeast crater, for 40 years the undisputed peak of Etna,” INGV said in a press release.
The “conspicuous transformation of the volcano’s outline” has come after about 50 episodes of volcanic activity that has seen ash and lava belched from the crater since mid-February.
Though the volcano poses little damage to surrounding villages, Sicily’s government estimated in July that 300,00 metric tonnes of ash has been cleaned up so far, after dirtying streets, slowing down traffic, and damaging crops.
Living in Catania, a two-hour drive away from Mount Etna, pensioner Tania Cannizzaro told AFP that the volcano was both beautiful and annoying, with ash that sometimes falls “like rain”.
“Depending on the wind, the rumblings of the volcano reach Catania and make the windows shake,” she said, adding that the streets and balconies turn black under the ash.
“But there is also the spectacle, especially in the evening, when you see this red plume that moves.”