Mount Etna Mount Etna Mount Etna, or Etna ( or ; or ; ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is the highest active volcano in Europe outside the Caucasus. It is currently high, though this varies with summit eruptions. It is the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of with a basal circumference of . This makes it by far the
Mount Etna towns lie around or on cones of past flank eruptions. Since the year AD 1600, at least 60 flank eruptions and countless summit eruptions have occurred; nearly half of these have happened since the start of the 20th century. Since 2000, Etna has had four flank eruptions — in 2001, 2002–2003, 2004–2005, and 2008–2009. Summit eruptions occurred in 2006, 2007–2008, January–April 2012, and again in July–October 2012. The first known record of eruption at Etna is that of Diodorus Siculus. In 396 BC, an eruption of Etna reportedly thwarted the Carthaginians in their attempt to advance on Syracuse during the