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...

Pillow lava is a typical product of underwater volcanic activity, with the formation of characteristic pillow-shaped structures. When lava escapes below sea level, the outer portion cools quickly, while inside it is still completely melted and able to flow. The pressure from the inside slowly inc...

Sometimes, the pillow lavas can break due to excess internal pressure that is higher than the pressure of the surrounding water: 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 ...

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 pantomime of the hard life of the fishermen and the eternal struggle for survival, worthy of the tales of Giovanni Verga and Erne...

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 invasive use of irrigation systems. However, this is true once the products of volcanic eruptions, la...

According to the Theory of Plate Tectonics, the lithosphere, the outermost rigid shell of the Earth’s crust, is divided into 20 rigid plates, also called lithospheric plates, that float on the asthenosphere below. The floating plates can: move away from each other; come together and collide; come...

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 thought 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 Cana...

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 cult has origins in Lemnos, where the ancient inhabitants believed that the volcanic fires coming out of the mountain M...