Mount Etna (2002)

• East cost of Sicily 40 km north west of Catania, Sicily’s second-biggest city.
• started just before midnight 26th October 2002, ended on 28 January 2003.
• over the past 2,700 years there have been 77 deaths due to lava.
• 1,000 left homeless after the explosion.
• HDI was 0.895 in 2021; HDI was 0.853 in 2001.
• More than 20% of the Sicilian population live on Etna due agricultural employment; 3/4 of Sicily‘s crops are grown in the immediate vicinity of the volcano.
• Magnitude was 3.6 in 2002.
• Population size was 330,000 residents in Catania
• Population density of Sicily is 190/km2, compared to the population density of Catania is 1,700/km2.
• GDP per capita is USD$35,657 in 2021;

  GDP per capita is USD$20,500 in 2001.
• More than 20% of the Sicilian population live on Etna due to agricultural employment; 3/4 of Sicily’s crops are grown in the immediate vicinity of the volcano.
• Sicily has one of the lowest cost of living in Europe;

  Thought to be a very safe place to live;

  Cheap real-estate.
• Convergent plate boundary of two continental plates.
• African plate subducting under the Eurasian plate;

  Formed the 3,350 metre stratovolcano.
• The earth’s mantle is so hot that it melts the rock turning it into magma.
• The convection currents in the magma force up the magma through the vent of a volcano causing it to erupt.
• Hazard Type generated


  Effusive explosions (low viscosity/low silica levels) 100 to 200 metres high;

  Ash plume of 3km high;

  Tephra sets forests on fire;

  Cracks in the ground;

  More than 100 tremors from 1.1 to 3.5 on the Richter scale (via Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology)
• short term; social


  Catania airport shut for 2 weeks;

  Schools were shut down, but the Church remained open for people to pray.
• long term; social


  minimal effects in the respiratory systems of Catania residents.
• short term; economic


  ski resorts, a major tourists attraction, were destroyed;

  decrease in tourism due to fear of harm.
• long term; economic 


  Lava and ash destroyed all crops, and destroyed vineyards.
• short term; environmental 


  Forest fires;

  deaths of fauna and flora.
• long term; environmental


  the ash makes the soil around the volcano extremely fertile.
• modify the event; short term

  500kg of TNT was ignited as to divert lava flows.
• modify the event; long term


  local scale success at slowing and diverting lava flows via earth barriers/earth dams and large concrete blocks dropped into the lava flow.
• modify the vulnerability; short term

  closure of airports and airspace when threatened by ash in the atmosphere.
• modify the vulnerability; long term


  long term analysis of eruption patterns of the individual volcanoes, comparing with similar international eruptions.
• modify the loss; short term


  minimal casualties in general due to timely evacuation based on accurate data and well-trained public services such as the fire service, the police and the military.