Mount Etna Volcano Essay

The volcano of Mount Etna has been on this earth for about 500,000 years and is still currently active. This volcano is located on the east side of Sicily, Italy and stands 10,900 feet tall with a base circumference of 93 miles; it also still has a series of eruptions dating back to 2001. Mount Etna is considered a stratovolcano which means it’s built on top of many layers of lava and ash made from previous eruptions. What makes this volcano so unique is that it has many eruption styles ranging from extreme violent ones to regular lava just flowing from the mouth of it. About “25% Sicily 's population lives on Mount Etna 's slopes.” Etna stands tall above Catania which is a city on the island of Sicily. This stratovolcano plays a major influence

The most powerful eruption ever recorded was in “1669, when explosions destroyed part of the summit and lava flows from a fissure on the volcano 's flank reached the sea and the town of Catania, more than ten miles away.” This eruption also paved the way for the way the lava flows from it now however; so when the town was destroyed they rebuilt around the flow of the lava to make sure they’ll be safe. In the year 1775 it erupted again but this time producing big lahar’s, which is a destructive mudflow on the slope of the volcano. “An extremely violent eruption in 1852 produced more than 2 billion cubic feet of lava and covered more than three square miles of the volcano 's flanks in lava flows. Etna 's longest eruption began in 1979 and went on for thirteen years; its latest eruption began in March 2007, and is still

This specific volcano however holds the record for longest continuous eruptions. “Mount Etna is a series of nested stratovolcanoes with four distinct summit craters. There are two central craters, called Bocca Nuova and Voragine; the Northeast crater; and the newest Southeast crater, which was formed by an eruption in 1978.” The reason why tectonic plates are so important is because they are the reason how most mountains are formed. The African tectonic plate is major for Africa because it stretches across the entire continent straddling the equator as the prime meridian. It also stretches across some oceanic crust which “lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.” The African plate actually has 6 major other plates connected to it as well, but Mount Etna is located in the North, on the Eurasian