Mount Etna Produces Pyroclastic Flow, Sends Tourists Running

A pyroclastic flow occurred on Monday, June 2, 2025, on Italy’s Mount Etna, producing a huge plume of ash and sending tourists running. Authorities said there was no current danger to the population and also the Catania–Fontanarossa Airport (one of Europe’s busiest airports) remains unaffected.

Photos show that a smaller portion of the Southeast Crater collapsed, triggering the pyroclastic flow — an avalanche of hot ash, gas and rock fragments. Fortunately, the flow moved away from a group of tourist hiking around the summit area, heading instead towards the Valle del Leone and the Valle del Bove, both uninhabited areas.

A satellite image taken by Sentinel 2 and shared by the Civil Protection Department shows the summit area, the pyroclastic flow with white (likely water steam) to grey (likely rock particles) protuberances, a reddish plume of volcanic ash followed by a red-glowing lava flow moving towards Valle del Bove. The Valle del Bove is a vast plain of dark lava rocks formed during an eruption in 1971.

Volcanic activity lasted less than 24 hours, a quite typical behavior for Mount Etna.

Since March of this year the Southeast Crater showed signs of activity with smaller explosions and moderate lava flows. But there have been similar larger events in the past few years, such as on February 11, 2014, September 21, 2021, February 10, 2022 and June 10, 2022.

“Etna is often considered a ‘gentle’ and ‘non-explosive’ volcano, whose activity is mainly characterized by the emission of lava flows, “ writes Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, on his social media profile. ”Instead, it is an extremely versatile volcano, and especially in the last 25 to 30 years there has been a significant increase in the frequency of highly explosive events. These often manifest itself in the form of short, very violent episodes, known as paroxisms or lava fountain episodes, exclusively to the summit craters of the volcano, and especially to the youngest of the four summit craters — the Southeast Crater (formed just 24 years ago).”

Mount Etna is Europe’s largest active volcano and one of the youngest in the world. The first lava flows occurred 600,000 years ago, still under water in a shallows bay. The volcanic edifice, composed of a complex succession of lava flows and ash deposits, started to take shape around 100,000 years ago. Today’s shape, with the summit area dotted by three larger craters and some minor volcanic cones, began to form just 3,000 years ago. Lava chemistry shows that Mount Etna’s volcanic activity is fed by the partial melting of the subducting Adriatic microplate, sliding beneath the African plate, and a plume of material rising upwards along the plate boundaries. This mix may explain the changing eruption styles, ranging from effusive eruptions that send large lava flows down the flanks to more explosive, short-lived events limited to the summit area.