After six months of activity, Mount Etna's southeastern crater has grown in height, according to Italy's monitoring agency. It is now the tallest active volcano in Europe.
The southeastern crater is the volcano's youngest and has now reached a record height of 3,357 meters (11,000 feet) above sea level, according to said INGV, the National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology.
The INGV said in a press release:
"Thanks to the analysis and processing of satellite images, the southeast crater is now much higher than its 'older brother', the northeast crater, for 40 years the undisputed peak of Etna."
The crater has recorded about 50 episodes of belching ash and lava since mid-February, leading to a 'conspicuous transformation of the volcano's outline'. Its dimensions are being calculated through satellite images.
The previous record height of the northeastern crater of the volcano was at 3,350 meters in 1981, but following a collapse in 2018, it had reduced to 3,326 meters.
Although it has been producing smoke and ash, the volcano poses little danger to the villages located nearby.
According to an estimate from Sicily's government in July, so far, 300,000 metric tones of ash have been cleaned up.
The ash has however created problems in nearby areas including, dirtying streets and damaging crops.
Tania Cannizzaro, a pensioner living two hours away in Catania, told AFP that despite its beauty, mount Etna can pose difficulties with the ash that falls 'like rain'.
She said:
"Depending on the wind, the rumblings of the volcano reach Catania and make the windows shake. But there is also the spectacle, especially in the evening, when you see this red plume that moves."
[h/t: Science Alert]
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