Latest news with #MtEtna
SBS Australia
08-06-2025
- SBS Australia
For lava chasers and the volcano curious, is the thrill worth the risk?
People viewing the lava field after Iceland's Mount Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted after 800 years in 2021. Source: Getty / Sophia Groves When Italy's Mt Etna erupted this week, it put on the kind of spectacular display that can stir fanatics and the volcano-curious into taking a closer look at some of the world's most awe-inspiring attractions. Amid signs volcano tourism is growing more popular, researchers and travel experts warn there are very real risks to visiting those that don't lie dormant. "There was a big explosion and a crater collapsed but luckily it fell into a deserted area," Salvo Cocina, the head of Sicily's Civil Protection Department, told the Reuters news agency. "It's very hard to block access, you can't fence it off," he added. Cocina said dozens of hikers had ventured on to Etna despite a warning of increased signs of volcanic activity being issued early that day. Mt Etna's eruption was "strombolian", Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said, and produced what might be "one of the most famous pyroclastic flows of our time", Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the agency, wrote on X. That moniker comes from Italy's Mt Stromboli, which boatloads of tourists visit every year. Many climb up to the summit to experience the thrill of witnessing the dance of fire and ash at this active volcano which has "exhibited nearly constant lava fountains for the past 2,000 years", according to the Global Volcanism program. It has left an everlasting impact on volcanology, in that continuous but mild volcanic activity has come to be known as 'strombolian activity', in which volcanoes fling pieces of very hot rock (as high as 800C) and blobs of lava far and wide. "When volcanoes like Etna in Italy and Kilauea in Hawaii erupt spectacularly like they did this year, there are increased enquiries for tours," said John Seach, an Australian vulcanologist and astrophysicist, who have been in the volcano tour business for 40 years and visited over 200 volcanoes. Not only is Mt Etna a popular tourist attraction — with some reports suggesting it attracts upwards of a million visitors each year — it is also "one of the most active volcanoes on earth and a reasonably frequently-erupting one," said Prof Teresa Ubide Garralda, a volcano scientist at the University of Queensland. "The current activity started in March and has been on and off since then," Garralda said. She said that even though countries have effective monitoring systems in place around active volcanoes, it is difficult to precisely forecast the exact time of an eruption. "Earthquakes triggered by the movement of magma inside the volcano, images of inflation or deflation in the ground and the emission of gases can help forecast potential eruptions but it's difficult to accurately say exactly when that happens," she said. Volcanoes attract million of tourists from around the world, according to the British Geological Survey, and there are signs popularity has grown over time. In Iceland, one of the most volcanically active places in the world, foreign tourist numbers grew from around 488,600 in 2010 to about 2.25 million in 2024. Numbers have hovered around the 2 million mark since 2017, though they dipped between 2020 and 2022 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many countries closed their borders before gradually reopening. Interest has also picked up among Australians since international borders repoened, according to Brett Mitchell, the ANZ managing direction of Intrepid Tours, which sells tours that include volcano experiences. He said there's been a 54 per cent increase in bookings since 2023. When Indonesia's Marapi volcano suddenly erupted in late 2023, there were 75 people hikers on the mountain at the time. Some 24 of them, including young university students, died, according to an ABC report. In 2019, New Zealand's Whakaari, also known as White Island, erupted during a tour group visit. Forty-seven people were on the island at the time and 22 of them, including 17 Australians, died. The others were seriously injured. Judge Evangelos Thomas presided over the subsequent trial brought by New Zealand's workplace health and safety regulator. When it ended in March last year, he said several tour operators and the island's owners, Whakaari Management Limited, had "used an active volcano to make money". He also said one tour operator had not adequately briefed tourists on safety information. Some NZ$10.21 million ($9.56 million) in reparations were ordered to be paid to families of victims and survivors. Whakaari Management Limited, who was ordered to pay $4.57 million of the total figure, appealed that decision. New Zealand's High Court quashed the conviction and its share of the payments in February, with a judge reasoning it did not manage or control the walking tour workplace. Prof Raymond Cas, an emeritus professor at Monash University and one of Australia's leading volcanologist, was engaged as an expert by families of victims and survivors during the trial. "With Whakaari, tourists weren't warned they could die in the event of an eruption," Cas said. "It was clear the information given to those tourists was inadequate. The island is very remote and the tour involves walking inside an amphitheatre-like crater with no exit. The tourist brochure painted the experience as a volcanic wonderland, making it sound very much like the geothermal areas in Rotorua," added Cas, who has visited Whakaari many times as a student and researcher. Cas said the tourists were also not told that a few nights before the tragedy, there was a significant explosive event in which deposits inundated the crater area. He said: "The tour guides weren't qualified vulcanologists — if you're leading a tour group in an active volcano, you must be adequately trained. As far as I'm aware, there's no requirement for volcano tour guides to be qualified vulcanologists." He believes that's "totally unethical". "People don't fully understand the danger. They're making assumptions that because tours are being offered, they must be safe. And that the government and tour operators have done the due diligence regarding legal requirements and other compliance," he said. Seach, who sits at a unique intersection of being a vulcanologist, avid lava chaser and experienced tour guide, says seeing an eruption is "one of the greatest sights in nature, but the challenge must be accepted with common sense and knowledge of the risks". He said participants on his tours travel at their own risk. "All reasonable care is taken on tours, but volcanic activity is unpredictable, and no guarantee can be made about safety on an active volcano. A decision to climb an erupting volcano should be based on a risk-benefit analysis," reads a part of the safety note he provides his tour group members. Travel and tourism New Zealand Share this with family and friends
CNN
02-06-2025
- Climate
- CNN
Huge eruption on Italy's Mt. Etna leaves tourists fleeing volcano
A massive eruption at Mt. Etna forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday after a plume of high temperature gases, ash and rock 'several kilometers high' billowed into the air above them, Italian authorities said. Footage posted on social media shows long lines of people hurrying downhill away from the explosion while the owner of one tour company told CNN they had 40 people on the Sicilian volcano when it erupted. Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna, filmed his tour group huddled together with an enormous ash cloud in the distance. 'We were nearly grazed, look at this cloud here. We were two steps away and thank goodness we have a responsible guide with us,' he says in the video shared with CNN. 'It arrived all at once, an immense smoke, immense, immense roar.' About a dozen tour operators work on Etna at any given time, the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency told CNN, adding that they are contacting all of them to ensure everyone is accounted for. The volcano on the Italian island is a popular tourist destination visited by 1.5 million people a year, many of whom trek almost all the way to its summit. Although Mt. Etna is one of the world's most active volcanos, there hasn't been an eruption of this magnitude since 2014, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory. These eruptions often stop as quickly as they start, the observatory added, though explosions are still increasing in intensity and the mountain is spewing out a very small amount of lava and fire. This eruption, which began overnight, produced explosions heard as far away as Taormina and Catania, which are about 50 kilometers and 40 kilometers (31 miles and 25 miles) away, respectively, according to several witnesses who posted footage on social media. The observatory said that the preliminary observations show a 'partial collapse' of the northern flank of the volcano's southeast crater, which has produced spectacular lava flows during recent eruptions in the last few months. None of the ash is expected to fall on Catania, the city at the foot of the volcano, though authorities are prepared to alert people to take cover if the wind changes, the city's mayor Enrico Tarantino told CNN. Nearby airports in Catania and Palermo remain open too as, currently, the wind is not blowing the ash in that direction. The Sicilian Civil Protection Agency instructed all flight travel to avoid the area and some flights from Catania have been directed to Palermo, according to Flight Radar Data. Authorities have closed many of the roads heading up to the volcano to prevent people trying to get close to the eruption and from getting in the way of first responders and emergency vehicles, Tarantino added. Around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), the volcano started spewing hot lava, which is more in line with previous eruptions, an observatory spokesman said. The observatory defined the volcanic activity as a pyroclastic eruption, resulting in a 'significant increase in volcanic tremor and the formation of an eruptive column containing a lethal mixture of high-temperature gases, lava grains, volcanic ash, and rock fragments of various sizes that rapidly descends down the slopes of the volcano.' This story has been updated.
News.com.au
02-06-2025
- Climate
- News.com.au
Tourists flee as Mt Etna volcano erupts
One of Europe's largest volcanoes has erupted sending hot ash as high as five kilometres into the air. Mt Etna, on the Italian island of Sicily close to the city of Catania, erupted on Monday. Video shows people who were on the volcano running for safety. One tour firm told US broadcaster CNN that as many as 40 people were on the volcano when it erupted. No injuries have been reported. Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said there were 'strombolian explosions of increasing intensity'. Strombolian eruptions are relatively mild, for volcanoes, and include the ejection of cinders and burning chunks of lava – known as 'lava bombs' – hundreds of metres into the air. Lava flows are often thicker and so are slower and shorter. 'From a seismic point of view, the values of the magnitude of the tremor are currently elevated with a tendency to increase further,' stated the INGV. Authorities have said the lava flows were likely caused by the collapse of material on the northern side of Etna's south east crater. President of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani said it was following Etna's eruption with 'utmost attention'. The partial collapse of the crater, which generated an impressive eruptive cloud several kilometres high and a pyroclastic flow, represents a phenomenon that we are following with extreme caution,' he was reported as asking by Italian broadcaster Rai. He added the eruptions effects have so far been confided and there is so far 'no danger' to the local people. Air traffic has also not been affected. More than a million people visit Etna each year which is relatively easy to hike. It is one of the world's most active volcanoes and is almost constantly in some level of activity. Despite that, this is the first major eruption since 2014.
CNN
02-06-2025
- Climate
- CNN
Italy's Mt. Etna erupts, sending huge plume of ash and rock into air
A massive eruption occurred at Mt. Etna on the Italian island of Sicily, producing a plume of high temperature gases, ash and rock 'several kilometers high,' authorities said on Monday. The eruption, which began overnight, produced explosions heard as far away as Taormina and Catania, which are about 50 kilometers and 40 kilometers (31 miles and 25 miles) away, respectively, according to several witnesses who posted footage on social media. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory said that the preliminary observations show a 'partial collapse' of the northern flank of the volcano's southeast crater, which has produced spectacular lava flows during recent eruptions in the last few months. The Sicilian Civil Protection agency issued a Volcanic Observatory Notice for Aviation (VONA), which means all flight travel must avoid the area. The airports in Catania and Palermo remain open as, currently, the wind is not blowing ash in the direction of the airport. However, some flights from Catania have been diverted to Palermo, according to Flight Radar Data. Around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), the volcano started spewing hot lava, which is more in line with previous eruptions, an observatory spokesman said. The observatory defined the volcanic activity as a pyroclastic eruption, resulting in a 'significant increase in volcanic tremor and the formation of an eruptive column containing a lethal mixture of high-temperature gases, lava grains, volcanic ash, and rock fragments of various sizes that rapidly descends down the slopes of the volcano.' This is a developing story.
