Mount Etna erupts in Sicily - photos
Mount Etna, Europe's largest volcano, has been erupting for a week off the eastern coast of Sicily. Such a prolonged eruption has not been seen since the late 1970s. The local airport has been closed and more than a thousand flights have been canceled.
Etna volcano active in Sicily - photos
Etna, Europe's largest volcano, located on the east coast of Sicily, has been erupting for a week. Salvo Gambino, director of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology observatory in Catania, said that such a long-term eruption has not been observed since the late 1970s. According to him, lava flows have been observed several times in recent decades, but they usually stop within a few hours. The volcanic ash has seriously affected the operation of Catania airport, as a result of which more than a thousand flights were canceled at the height of the tourist season. Some passengers have been forced to spend the night in the terminals for several days. Gambino said that it is impossible to predict how long the eruption will last - it could stop "tomorrow, in a few days, in a week or in a month."