Active Volcanoes in Europe

In Europe, the most popular tourist attraction is the Swiss Alps. But when it comes to active volcanoes, Italy rules the roost. An active volcano, according to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program is the one having erupted within the last 10,000 years. Europe has a fair amount of active volcanoes. Two of the world's most active volcanoes are in Italy, in and around Sicily. Mount Vesuvius, towering over the Bay of Naples, is one of the most dangerously active volcanoes present today. A close competitor is the Mount Etna, located on the coast of Sicily, near Messina and Catania. Mount Stromboli, in Stromboli, Italy is another active volcano in Italy. To add to the list of active volcanoes in Europe, Mount Hekla is an active volcano in Southern Iceland (considered a part of Europe).

The severity of the eruption, on the basis of which volcanoes are characterized, is the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI). The term VEI was basically devised to give a relative measure of the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions. Volume of products, eruption cloud height and qualitative observations using terms, scaling from gentle to mega colossal are used to determine the explosivity value. The largest volcanoes in history have been given a magnitude of 8, representing mega colossal explosive eruption. For non-explosive eruptions, a value of 0 is given.

Active Volcanoes in Europe

Mount Etna: Etymologically, the word Etna means a mountain. Mount Etna, rising above the Sicilian sea coast in Italy is basically a stratovolcano, also called as a composite volcano. These volcanoes are tall and conical, and have a number of layers of Tephra (air-fall material produced by volcanic eruption, regardless of composition or fragment size), lava and volcanic ash. They are characterized by periodic and explosive eruptions. Etna is the second-largest active volcano in Europe, at a height of 3,329 metres (10,922ft), which is 69 feet lower now than it was in 1981.

To the south of the Alps, Etna is the highest mountain in Italy. It covers an area of 1,190km² (460sq mi). Being in constant state of eruption, it has been designated as Decade Volcano by the United Nations. The volcanic activity of Etna began about half a million years ago.
In the 20th century, major eruptions happened in 1949, 1971, 1981, 1983 and 1991-1993, 2001,2002-2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The eruptions in 2001, 2002-2003, and 2004-2005 lasted for 3 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months, respectively. Interestingly, Etna erupted smoke rings in the 1970s, which is one of the first captured events of this type. Such an eruption of smoke rings is very rare.

Mount Hekla: Located in the south of Iceland with a height of 1,491metres (4,892 ft), this is another stratovolcano and the most active in this part of the world. Interestingly, Hekla is a part of a volcanic ridge, which is 40 km long. But, a fissure, about 5.5 km long, named 'Heklugja' is the most active part of this ridge. The largest eruption of Hekla occurred in the BC era, which is said to have cooled the northern parts of the globe for some of the years which followed the eruptions. In the modern era, the eruptions in Hekla occurred in 1947-1948, 1970, 1980 and 1981, 1991 and 2000. The recent one, that is in the year 2000, lasted from February 26 to March 8. The statistics portray that the maximum VEI Hekla has had is around 5.

Mount Vesuvius: One of the major active volcanoes in Europe is Mount Vesuvius. It caused the destruction of the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii, in 79 AD. It is located on the coast of the Bay of Naples, about nine kilometers east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. The 79 AD eruption is said to have claimed lives of around 10,000 to 25,000 people. It is said to be one of the most lethal active volcanoes, because of its tendency towards explosive eruptions.

The contemporary eruptions were prominently in 1872, and in 1906, 1929, and the last one in 1944. There were eruptions, where, the whole of southern Europe had been blanketed by ash; in 472 and 1631. What's more, Vesuvian ash fell on erstwhile Constantinople (Istanbul), which is 1,200 kilometers away. Millions of people could be affected in case of an eruption from the Vesuvius. So, a plan has been formulated for the evacuation of the people affected by this volcano.

Mount Stromboli: Another significant active volcano in Italy, is Mount Stromboli. It is on a small island off the north coast of Sicily. Rising to almost 2,000 meters from the floor of the ocean, it has been constantly erupting almost for the last 2,000 years. The eruptions of this volcano are the best at night, when chunks of lava are blasted out of the volcano, forming bright red arcs in the sky. Interestingly, an entire category of eruptions have been named by geologists after the eruptions witnessed from the Mount Stromboli. This proves the iconic quality of the eruptions of Stromboli. In fact, Mount Hekla had an eruption, where one stage included bursts of strombolian eruption. When a volcano blasts out blobs of hot lava, gas and rocks in arcs from its volcanic vent, it is called a strombolian eruption. The largest eruption was in 1930 which involved a considerable death toll and the most recent eruption was in 2002.

Santorini: A layman always associates a volcano with a mountain. But Santorini, is a small, circular cluster or a collection of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from Greece's mainland. It is basically what remained of a huge volcanic eruption which destroyed the settlements on what was earlier a single island. This led to the formation of the present geological caldera. It has an approximately 500 km long and 20-40 km wide volcanic arc.

It seems that the earth's inner crust, even after billions of years of its formation, is still viciously hot and has molten lava and other chemicals. Volcanoes are probably the earth's only safety valve.