Mount Etna just had its first major eruption in more than 30 years – and the images are pretty dramatic.
As Europe’s most active and tallest volcano, Mount Etna (in eastern Sicily) decided to put on quite the performance over the weekend.
Travel was particularly affected, with flights due to arrive at the local airport still being cancelled or redirected on Monday morning.
Although the flights have since been restored with “initial limitations”, delays are still likely after the 3,326m volcano exploded on Sunday night.
Mount Etna erupts several times a year, but this particular performance was the largest since around 1992.
Molten liquid came out the top while a thick layer of ash coated the city of Catania, which is to its south.
That ash sent lava fountains 10km or 6.2 miles into the air, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s Etna observatory told CNN, after several days of steadily increasing tremor activity.
The Italian news agency ANSA also reported that people in the towns of Adrano and Biancavilla reported hearing loud booms from the volcano on Sunday.
Luckily, no injuries have been reported, but volcanic ash poses a serious problem to flights because it hampers general visibility and can damage flight controls and jet engines.
Etna’s regular eruptions do actually help fertilise the local lands, and have not deterred the local tourism trade – but, the eruptions regularly alter the landscape as the lava hardens and creates craters across the local area.
Although the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s noted that cloud cover was impeding the views of the eruption, there were still a handful of impressive videos and photos from the eruption from Sunday shared online: