Mt Etna Spews Ash 5 Miles High
Rome, Feb 11: Sicily’s Mount Etna, the largest and most active volcano in Europe, erupted for the first time this year overnight into Friday, spewing ash and clouds in a massive column as high as five miles into the sky.
According to the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the eruption occurred late on Thursday in the southeast crater of the volcano at an altitude of about 9,514 feet, emitting ash and clouds of smoke rising as high as five miles.
Three streams of pyroclastic material formed from the crater, with the first two moving a few hundred feet towards the Valle del Bove, and the third heading south at approximately the same distance, according to the institute.
The burst of Etna activity reportedly stopped around 01:00 a. m. local time [00:00 GMT]. The volcano had numerous eruptions and spikes in activity over the years, but the last major eruption that necessitated evacuations took place in 1992.
