MILAN — Sicily’s Mount Etna delivered a dazzling display on Monday, projecting a plume of smoke and ash several kilometers into the sky, although authorities confirmed that the event did not pose any threat to the public.
The alert level was heightened at Catania airport due to the volcanic activity, yet no disruptions were reported. Officials later announced that the emission of the ash cloud had ceased by the afternoon.
According to Italy’s INGV National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the dramatic activity on Europe’s most active volcano occurred when a segment of the southeast crater gave way, releasing streams of hot lava. This marked the 14th eruptive phase in recent months.
The area of danger was confined to the summit of Etna, which was closed to tourists as a precaution, according to Stefano Branca, an INGV official in Catania.
Sicily’s president, Renato Schifani, said lava flows emitted in the eruption had not passed the natural containment area, “and posed no danger to the population.”
The event was captured in video and photos that went viral on social media. Tremors from the eruption were widely felt in the towns and villages on Mount Etna’s flanks, Italian media reported.
Video showed tourists running along a path on the flank of the vast volcano with smoke billowing some distance in the background. Excursions are popular on Etna, which is some 3,300 meters (nearly 11,000 feet) high, with a surface area of some 1,200 square kilometers (about 460 square miles.)
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