History

Mt. Etna has been growing for about 500,000 years!!! It recorded erruptions date all the way back to 1500 B.C.E.! There have been over 200 recorded erruptions since then! Mt. Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the worls and possibly in history! In 1669 lava flows from a large eruption destroyed several villages and threatened the city of Catania when the lava came through the city wall. Catania has been covered by Etna's lava seven times. There have only been two major disasters that have taken place on Mount Etna: one in 1169, responsible for up to 15,000 deaths, and the most famous disaster, which took place in 1669 killed around 20,000 people. One of the largest series of eruptions ever occured in October 2002. A huge explosion of ash, which landed as far away as Libya, could be seen from space! Mt. Etna has become increasingly active over the last fifty years. Mt. Etna was mentioned several times in Greek mythology. Erruptions from Mt. Etna have provided rich soil. Because of this, a large nomberof Sicily's population lives on or around Mt. Etna and farms there. Mt. Etna is not part of a chain. It stands alone. Another main event in Mt. Etna's life was in August 2001. The lava flow reached to a length of about 6.9 km. This great eruption destroyed many of the tourist facilities in Od Messina and Catania ( The city's around the volcano). Luckily, the cities wern't completely destroyed, but they still suffered severe damage. -Becca Goldman, Nuria Rios and Cody Ford