He volcano etnalocated on the island of Sicily (south) and considered the busiest in Europetoday registered a new lava eruption which also expelled a cloud of ash over the city of Cataniawhich forced the closure of its airport in the middle of the high tourist season.
“Due to the eruptive activity of Etna, the Catania airport has been closed”the aerodrome manager announced in a statement, which asks passengers to check with their airline for possible changes or diversions, also on arrival flights.
The reopening is expected this afternoon, at 8:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT), although it is subject to modifications.
Likewise, a decree of the mayor of Catania, Enrico Trantino“prohibits in the next 48 hours the circulation of two-wheeled vehicles, bicycles and motorcycles, because multiple parts of the city are covered in a layer of volcanic ash,” the municipality said on its website.
The closure of the aerodrome coincides with the start of the holidays by August 15, which in Italy is popularly known as “Ferragosto”, and with the island of Sicily as one of the favorite destinations for Italians and foreigners in the summer.
In 2022, some 10 million passengers transited through Catania International Airport.
He etnawhich culminates at 3,324 meters, It is the highest and most active volcano in Europe. It goes through frequent eruptions that usually cover the surrounding Sicilian cities with ash, the last one in May.
He National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) confirmed the activity, which was “turned into a lava fountain”producing an eruptive cloud dispersed by the southerly winds, as well as a diversion of the lava flow to the south of the crater at an altitude of 2,800 meters
submarine volcanoes
Although the etna and he Vesuvius, near Naples, are the most famous volcanoes, Italy actually has about “70, of which the vast majority are submarines and go from Tuscany to Sicily and the Sicilian channel”, indicates the website of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
Last week the authorities announced the discovery of three submarine volcanoes near the Sicilian coast, which brings to fifteen the volcanoes located in the channel of Sicilythe arm of the sea that separates the Italian island from North Africa.
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“We discovered six volcanoes in 2019, plus the three that we have just discovered, but there were already another five or six classified, that is, around fifteen submarine volcanoes,” he explained. Emanuele Lodologeophysics expert from the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) of Italy.
These last three “are one variable depth between 100 and 400 metersand the closest, about 7 km from the coast” southwest of Sicily, Lodolo said.
For now, experts do not know if these volcanoes represent a danger to the population: “It is like with earthquakes, we do not have the capacity to make forecasts, we cannot affirm that there will not be an eruption. The important thing is to constantly monitor them.”
The OGS specified in a statement that it had also been found the remains of a ship in oceanographic investigations carried out between July 16 and August 5 by an international team of scientists.
The unidentified remains belonged to a ship a hundred meters long and 17 meters widewhich lies at a depth of 110 meters halfway between the tiny volcanic island of Linosa and Sicily.
samples taken from the volcano “they will be essential to reconstruct the geological history of one of the most complex regions of the central Mediterranean”, said Matilde Ferrante, an OGS researcher who participated in the expedition cited in the statement.
(With information from AFP)
Keep reading:
Submarine volcanoes: the mysterious route of the burning lava in the depth of the sea
They discovered more than 19 thousand submarine volcanoes and they suppose that there are still more than 40 thousand to be detected
Source-www.infobae.com