Sometimes, the pillow lavas can break: in this case the inside of the “pillow” comes into contact with water so quickly that it vaporises instantly, creating a small explosion that causes the lava to break into small pieces of glass, called hyaloclastite breccias....

The fault is a fracture within a volume of rock in the Earth’s crust, where the two blocks that are separated show evidence of relative movement. The block above the fault surface is called the hanging wall, while the block below is called the footwall. If the hanging wall moves down the fault su...

Every year on 24 June, since 1750, Aci Trezza has hosted the folkloristic event “U pisci a mari” to celebrate St. John the Baptist, the town’s patron saint. It is a re-enactment of the hard life of the fishermen and the eternal struggle for survival, worthy of the tales of Giovanni Verga and E...

The fauna of Etna was described in the 19th century by Antonio Galvagni, who claimed to have seen wolves, fallow deer, wild boar, roe deer, griffon vultures and otters in the waterways. In the past, Mount Etna was covered by ice expanses of considerable size, due to the very different climate from t...

Volcanic soil is by far among the most fertile. The abundance of sodium, calcium, magnesium and especially potassium make volcanic zones ideal places for growing vegetables and fruit trees, without having to resort to irrigation systems. However, this is true once the products of volcanic eruptions...

A stratovolcano is generally a cone-shaped volcano formed by the overlapping of several layers of solidified lava, tephra, pumice and volcanic ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterised by rather steep slopes (up to 45°) and periodic explosive eruptions....

It is often said that Etna, with its almost 3400 metres of elevation and climbing, is the highest active volcano in Europe. But this is not true. From a purely official standpoint, the highest active volcano in Europe is Teide, with 3718 metres of elevation on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary ...

For the ancient Greeks, Hephaestus was the god of volcanoes. Hephaestus was a builder and architect, goldsmith and gunsmith, blacksmith and inventor of mechanical objects. He forged the weapons of Heracles and Achilles, two great heroes. His workshop, instead of together with the other Gods of Olymp...

Volcanology is a branch of Geology, the science that studies rocks, and is related to the study of volcanoes. This science aims to understand the origin and function of volcanoes and their eruptions, in order to understand the possible dangers faced by populations living around them, and their act...

Volcanic eruptions are mainly divided into two types: effusive, where lava flows and escapes, and explosive, where the magma is fragmented by the explosion of the gas bubbles inside it. Explosive eruptions are divided into 5-6 main types, and are grouped by considering the total energy of the erupt...