Mount Etna has been erupting spectacularly since February 16, 2021 (Credit: FishnewsYouTube screen capture)
Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, has been erupting regularly since 2011. However, the latest series of explosions, which began on February 16, 2021, has been particularly noteworthy. Emanating from the youngest of the volcano's four craters — the Southeast Crater— they have spewed spectacular fountains of lava as high as 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers). To put it in perspective, that is about three times the height of One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the United States.
“The most recent novelty is that the last six eruptive paroxysms were among the most violent in the Southeast Crater's young history,” says Marco Neri, a volcanologist with Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).