Mt. Etna: Sicily's Friendly Volcano

From afar, Mt. Etna, an active volcano on the northeast edge of Sicily, looks a though it’s embedded into the skyline. The faint outlines of the mountain against the cloudy sky resemble a page in a coloring book, waiting for a child to scribble in its colors. My ears pop from the pressure as the bus carries us up the mountain. Now Etna, looks like a giant sundae oozing with chocolate syrup as we travel up the windy roads. Black rock peeks through the blanket of snow covering the rocky terrain.

The song “Somewhere over the Rainbow” playing from the ipod on the tour bus fits the scenery. Traveling through Etna’s evolving landscape is like visiting another planet. Brightly colored lemon and orange trees at the base, rich from the volcanoes ash, give way to thin and bent looking trees destroyed from past lava flows. Every so often, a small village appears.

Etna stands 10,991 feet tall on the edge of the city of Catania and it has been estimated that she has been active for over two million years. The inhabitants of these villages do not live in fear of Etna, but rather admire her for her power and beauty. To them, she is their queen and they are her obedient loyal subjects.

The higher part of Mt. Etna is much cooler than the temperature at the base. Mounds of harden lava cover the area and a small gift shop, that looks more like a log cabin, stands among the rubble. Patterns of trees march up the vast valleys. Green pines stand out against barren meek trees with windy white branches. The sun silhouettes the trees and makes the snow sparkle. Beauty this overwhelming makes it hard to believe that the mountain is capable of spewing hot lava.

“When it erupts, we’re drawn to it,” says Rosa Rizza, a Sicilian tour guide. “You stop. You figure out which mouth it’s coming from. If lava is heading to your house you wait until the very last minute. You wait for a miracle.”

Rizza explained that during an eruption in 1992 a priest who lived on the mountain took out a statue of the Madonna, set it on the ground facing the direction of the lava flow and knelt down to pray. Miraculously, the lava stopped 15 meters from the statue and only water was found under it.

Unlike Hawaiian volcanoes, there have been very few deaths from Etna’s eruptions. An article in National Geographic said the reason for this is that the lava moves slowly, so residents have enough time to evacuate. Explosive eruptions are not frequent and when they do occur they are closer to the peak. Etna has even been nicknamed “friendly giant” by the Italians.

Sicilians not only see Etna’s lava flows as non-threatening but welcome the event as a gift. The ash from eruptions fertilizes soil and is even thought to make hair grow.

“We love her because she spews ashes on our plants,” says Rizza. “It is the best fertilizer from the earth, which is energy. If you have a plant that’s dying and you sprinkle some ash on it then that plant is going to look right up at you and say ‘Ciao!’”

The amount of energy released from Etna’s eruptions is astounding. A report in Science Daily said Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is continuously erupting.

“If man could capture the energy from eruptions we would be able to light up the entire earth continent for 30 years,” says Rizza.

The lava flows are unpredictable, but there is one warning sign. Before an eruption Etna starts puffing black smoke. The closest scientist have ever come to a prediction is four days. The last lava flow was in 2001. Harden lava still remains on the premises of the volcano in the form of black rocks.

“There is no pattern. When it erupts, it erupts,” says Rizza. “The volcano never ceases to surprise us.”

Rizza says erupting volcanoes are nothing to worry about, it’s actually a good sign that the earth is functioning just fine.

“As long as volcanoes keep erupting we’re ok,” she says. “It means our planet is still alive, Volcanoes are part of life. We relate Etna to life - not death.”