Mount Etna is Europe's largest volcano, and probably the second most active volcano on Earth.

The history of mount Etna is made of frequent periods of intermittent to persistent activity in the summit area and from new vents on its flanks every 1-20 years. The main feature of Etnean activity is voluminous lava emission, but strong explosive activity occurs occasionally, mostly from its four summit craters. Some of the eruptions from its flanks also show high degrees of explosivity, such as those in 1669, 1879, and 2002-2003.


There are a lot of interesting facts about mount Etna. First, it has the longest record of historical eruptions among all volcanoes on this planet. The total number of mount etna eruptions is 209. the spectacular  summit eruptions of 1995-2001, the flank eruption of July-August 2001, the modest summit eruptions of the summer of 2002, the dramatic flank eruption that lasted from October 2002 to January 2003, up to the years 2004-2006 when occurred powerful earthquakes, explosions with the production of ash in central craters.


The Sicilian volcano lies in a complex rifting environment hardly comparable to any other region on Earth.  Among the few information about mount Etna quite well understood is the fact that the volcano in sicily is placed at the intersection of several major regional fault systems. This fact probably facilitates the uprise of magma right in this place. There is some evidence that Etna is but the most recent manifestation of volcanism fed from a very long-lived mantle source, having caused numerous earlier phases of mafic volcanism.


Etna mountain’s eruptions represent a significant threat to human property and dwellings above all in catania and in the vicinity. This is mainly due to the frequency of eruptions on the flanks, sometimes at low elevation and thus close to inhabited areas, and to the presence of numerous towns and villages in sicily volcano's flanks, especially on the southern and southeastern sides. On several occasions during history, population centers have been partially or totally destroyed by lava flows, most recently in 1669 and 1928, and much more often has cultivated land been buried by lava flows.


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