Stunning pictures show Mount Etna explosion in detail as flights disrupted

Mount Etna erupted on Thursday (Picture: Emilio Messina/SWNS)

Mount Etna, Europe’s tallest active volcano, has been showing off its awesome power with an explosive eruption.

The fiery activity has also disrupted flights into nearby Catania Airport.

Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and lighting up the skies over in recent days as activity intensified. The nearby Stromboli volcano, off the northern Sicilian coast, also erupted, spilling lava into the sea.

But as Mount Etna rumbles on, incredible images captured in Sicily by photographer and guide Emilio Messina allow the world to get a close-up of the volcano.

‘This eruption started very slowly several days ago inside one of the four craters of the Etna volcano,’ he said. 

‘Yesterday, however, all the seismic and volcanic tremor signals indicated a significant rise of magma and I went to a safe altitude to document this imposing eruption.

‘It lasted several hours, with fallout of volcanic ash on the city of Catania below which had to close the airport and cancel all flights.’ 

Airport officials revealed that the runway at Catania Airport was unusable due to volcanic ash fall. It is now open for departures, but arrivals remain limited.

‘The eruption is now over after several hours, but the inconvenience for the villages and cities around the volcano is notable because the streets and houses are filled with volcanic ash at least two centimetres high,’ Mr Messina said. 

‘Volcanologists probably say that now the summit of Etna is even higher. Official measurements are awaited.’

Mount Etna is the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps with an official height of 3,357 metres, and has erupted multiple times in recent decades, with the last time being in December 2023. 

Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest active volcano (Picture: Emilio Messina / SWNS)

The eruption has caused problems for flights to and from the region (Picture: Emilio Messina / SWNS)

However, while it is particularly active, Mount Etna would not be considered as a supervolcano. These types of volcanoes are usually dubbed ‘super’ after an eruption, and must hit eight on the volcanic explosivity index (VEI), meaning it spews more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of material. 

Such an eruption would devastate the region, and have far-reaching impacts.

However, Italy’s Campi Flegrei, in Naples, has been rumbling away, and some scientists believe this has the potential to unleash an eruption of enormous proportion, even if not technically ‘super’.