ETNA, or MONGIBELLO, mOn'j6-bi•it, (Lat. _Etna). The largest active volcano in Europe. It is an isolated mountain on the Past • ern coast of Sicily near the city of Catania. It is cut off from the surrounding mountains on the north by the valley of the Alcantara and on the south and southwest by the valley of the Simento. Its eastern side rises directly from the Mediterranean, which here has a depth of 5000 to 6000 feet. The base of the volcano meas ures about 00 miles in eireumferenee. The as cent, gradual at first, leads with increasing slope to the summit, about 10.800 (according to a recent measurement, 10.738) feet above the sea. The general appearance of Etna is that of a massive lava cone, whose regularity of out line is broken by fissures and by numerous subsidiary cones. Of the latter there are more than 200 located at irregular intervals on the mountain-sides, some reaching a height of 700 feet. The cone occupied by the present principal crater rests upon a terrace which marks the site of an ancient larger cone that was probably de stroyed by an explosion. On the eastern slope is a vast amphitheatre called the Val del Bove, with precipitous sides nearly 3000 feet high, which was once the centre of eruption and which affords a remarkable view of the volcano's structure and its development during the repeated eruptions. The summit of Etna. except where covered with snow, presents a dreary waste of dark lava. scorns, and ashes. Lower clown there is a stretch of wooded region with pine, oak, beech, and poplar. A varying breadth of two to eleven miles of cultivated region surrounds its base, producing grain. oil, wine, fruit, and aromatic herbs. Snow
persists throughout the year in the fissures of the summits, and on the exposed portions for about eight months. An observatory and a house for the convenience of travelers have been erected on the terrace just beneath the crater.
The eruptions of Etna are on a grander scale than those of Vesuvius, but they are not of so frequent occurrence. There are records of eleven eruptions previous to the Christian Era, the first ON-li•ing in B.C. 476 or 477. The most remark able in later times are the following: the erup tion of A.D. 1169, when Catania and 15,000 of its inhabitants were destroyed ; that of 15.27, when two villages were buried and many human beings perished; that of 1669, when the flow of lava was directed again toward Catania and is said to have killed 20,000 people: and the eruption of 1693. when a still larger number of people are said to have been destroyed. A violent eruption took place in 1852. and immense quantities of volcanic dust fell over the adjacent country. Great tor rents of lava also issued from two new fissures on the eastern flank, one of which was nearly two miles in length. The next outbreak in 1864-65 was of trilling importance. That of May, 1879, was much more violent, the clouds of smoke and showers of ashes being followed by the ejection of a stream of lava which desolated a large tract of highly cultivated land. The latest eruptions oc curred in 1titi6 and 1892. See SICILY.