Etna is the highest active volcano of Europe and one of the
biggest of the the world. It is sited on the oriental coast of the
Sicily between Catania and Messina. His varied height on the time
because of his eruptions and at present it belongs 3.340 metres, while
his diameter is of about 45 kilometres. Up to the antiquity the
frequent and regular eruptions were the cause of the birth of popular
and mythological beliefs. The Roman and Greek mythology produced
several myths. The god of the wind “Eolo”, was telling that it
should imprison the winds under the caves of the Etna. The god Efesto
or Volcano, god of the fire and of the metallurgy, had his forge under
the Etna. He had tamed also the god of the fire Adranus. The Cyclopes
instead, terrible giants with one alone eye, about whom Omero talks in
the Odissea, had on the etna a workshop of forging where they were
producing the arrows used by Zeus (Jupiter for the Romans) as his
weapons.
In Catania the faithful people invoke the name of the holy
protector of the city, Holy Agata, against the fire and the
lightnings. In fact in 252 year, one year after the death of Holy
Agata, the etna had eruption. Then people took the red veil of the Holy
Saint, remained intact from the flames of the “martirio” , and,
invoking the name of the saint, the eruption of the etna ended .
Other figures that the popular belief ties to the etna are those of
Federico II of Svevia, but also of the Queen Elisabetta I of England.
The process of formation of the etna has begun about 600.000 years ago.
During the millenniums the volcanic activity has produced the rise
and the destruction of numerous complexes of volcanic stamps. The valle
of “Bove” was created by the explosion and a g eruption a volcanic
complex . Here it is still possible to observe the show of the “lava”
that gets out of a mouth of the volcano. The Etna is characterised by
the presence of different areas with frequent eruptive activities.
Hundreds of the smaller stamps are scattered around the mountain. Some
of them seem little volcanoes and go to some tens to hundreds of
metres. The washes of the etna is of “basaltico” type. The Etna is
in costant activity and this is the reason why it is possible to see
always smoke on the top. Numerous and spectacular eruptions are
remembered, someone also in recent epochs. In 1983 the eruption lasted
131 days and produced 100 millions of mc of lava. The longest eruption
of the century was in 1991 and lasted 473 days. The eruption of
“Zafferana” (little town on Etna) was in 2001-2002 and was seen also
by the space. In that case the dusts of the Volcano arrived up to the
Libya. On the volcano there are the many little cities. The volcanic
ground it is optimal for different agricultural productions. One of
this, absolutely typical of the zone, is the cultivation of the
“pistacchio”. The lived zone joins up to the 900 mt of height, while
that one cultivated up to 1500 mt.
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