Mount Etna (Rifugio Sapienza from Nicolosi)

Mount Etna (Rifugio Sapienza from Nicolosi)

Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is one of the tallest active volcanoes in Europe, and the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a height of 3,357 m (11,014 ft). Over a six-month period in 2021, Etna erupted so much volcanic material that its height increased by approximately 100 feet, and the southeastern crater is now the tallest part of the volcano. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km2 (459 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km (87 miles). This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands surpasses it in the whole of the European–North-African region west of the Black Sea.