Editing Mount Etna (section)

===Historical eruptions===

The first known record of eruption at Etna is that of [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Tanguy | first1 = J. C. | last2 = Condomines | first2 = M. | last3 = Goff | first3 = M. | last4 = Chillemi | first4 = V. | last5 = Delfa | first5 = S. | last6 = Patanè | first6 = G. | doi = 10.1007/s00445-007-0121-x | title = Mount Etna eruptions of the last 2,750 years: Revised chronology and location through archeomagnetic and 226Ra-230Th dating | journal = Bulletin of Volcanology | volume = 70 | issue = 1 | page = 55 | year = 2007 | url = http://www.ipgp.fr/~legoff/Download-PDF/ArcheoItalia/TanguyetAl_Bull_Volc_2007.pdf| bibcode = 2007BVol...70...55T | s2cid = 44241302 }}</ref>

[[File:Eruzione dell'Etna del 1766, incisione colorata di Alessandro D'Anna.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The 1766 eruption depicted in a coloured [[engraving]] by Italian painter {{ill|Alessandro D'Anna|it}}, {{circa|1770}}]]

In 396&nbsp;BCE, an eruption of Etna reportedly thwarted the [[Carthaginians]] in their attempt to advance on [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] during the [[Greek-Punic wars#The Second Sicilian War (410 BCE–340 BCE)|Second Sicilian War]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Smith | first=William | title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography | publisher=Walton and Maberly | year=1854 | location=London | page=213}}</ref>

A particularly violent explosive ([[Plinian eruption|Plinian]]) summit eruption occurred in 122&nbsp;BCE, and caused heavy [[tephra]] falls to the southeast, including the town of [[Catania]], where many roofs collapsed.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Coltelli |first1=M. |last2=Del Carlo |first2=P. |name-list-style=amp |last3=Vezzoli |first3=L. |year=1998 |title=Discovery of a Plinian basaltic eruption of Roman age at Etna Volcano, Italy |journal=[[Geology (journal)|Geology]] |volume=26 |issue=12 |pages=1095–1098 |doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<1095:DOAPBE>2.3.CO;2 |bibcode = 1998Geo....26.1095C }}</ref> To help with reconstruction after the devastating effects of the eruption, the Roman government exempted the population of Catania from paying taxes for ten years.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Chester | first1=David K. | title=The 122 BCE Eruption of Mount Etna: Causes, Impacts, and Aftermath | journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research | volume=104 | issue=1–4 | year=2001 | pages=91–99}}</ref>

An eruption of Etna in 44&nbsp;BCE was followed by famine in [[Han dynasty|China]] (43&nbsp;BCE) the [[Roman Republic]] and [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Egypt]], with [[Plutarch]] (among others) suggesting a [[Volcanic winter|causal link]];<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fei |first1=Jie |last2=Zhang |first2=David D. |last3=Lee |first3=Harry F. |date=2016-01-01 |title=1600 AD Huaynaputina Eruption (Peru), Abrupt Cooling, and Epidemics in China and Korea |journal=Advances in Meteorology |volume=2016 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |doi=10.1155/2016/3217038 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2016AdMet201617038F }}</ref> however, an eruption of [[Mount Okmok]] early the following year is a more likely cause.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McConnell |first1=Joseph R. |last2=Sigl |first2=Michael |last3=Plunkett |first3=Gill |last4=Burke |first4=Andrea |last5=Kim |first5=Woon Mi |last6=Raible |first6=Christoph C. |last7=Wilson |first7=Andrew I. |last8=Manning |first8=Joseph G. |last9=Ludlow |first9=Francis |last10=Chellman |first10=Nathan J. |last11=Innes |first11=Helen M. |last12=Yang |first12=Zhen |last13=Larsen |first13=Jessica F. |last14=Schaefer |first14=Janet R. |last15=Kipfstuhl |first15=Sepp |display-authors=3 |date=2020-07-07 |title=Extreme climate after massive eruption of Alaska's Okmok volcano in 43 BCE and effects on the late Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Kingdom |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=117 |issue=27 |pages=15443–15449 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2002722117 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=7354934 |pmid=32571905 |bibcode=2020PNAS..11715443M |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Roman poet [[Virgil]] gave what was probably a first-hand description of an eruption in the ''[[Aeneid]]''.<ref>Aeneid, edition of [[Theodore Chickering Williams|Theodore C. Williams]], ca. 1908 [book III, lines 569–579]</ref>

During the first 1500 years CE, many eruptions went unrecorded (or records have been lost); among the more significant are: (1) an eruption in about 1030 CE near Monte Ilice on the lower southeast flank, which produced a lava flow that travelled about 10&nbsp;km, reaching the sea north of Acireale; the villages of Santa Tecla and Stazzo are built on the broad delta built by this lava flow into the sea;<ref>{{cite journal | last=Chester | first=David K. | title=Eruptions of Mount Etna from 1030 to 1224: Historical Records and Volcanological Implications | journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research | volume=125 | year=2003 | pages=197–211}}</ref> (2) an eruption in about 1160 (or 1224), from a fissure at only {{convert|350|–|450|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} elevation on the south-southeast flank near the village of Mascalucia, whose lava flow reached the sea just to the north of Catania, in the area now occupied by the portion of the city named Ognina.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Chester | first=David K. | title=Historical Eruptions of Mount Etna: 1160 to 1224 | journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research | volume=150 | year=2006 | pages=123–134}}</ref>

[[Rabban Bar Sauma]], a Chinese traveller to the West, recorded the eruption of Etna on 18&nbsp;June 1287.<ref>[https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/sauma.html The history of the life and travels of Rabban Sawma]</ref>

The [[1669 Etna eruption|1669 eruption]], Etna's most destructive since 122&nbsp;BCE, started on 11&nbsp;March 1669 and produced lava flows that destroyed at least 10 villages on its southern flank before reaching the city walls of the town of [[Catania]] five weeks later, on 15&nbsp;April. The lava was largely diverted by these walls into the sea to the south of the city, filling the harbour of Catania. A small portion of lava eventually broke through a fragile section of the city walls on the western side of Catania and destroyed a few buildings before stopping in the rear of the Benedictine monastery, without reaching the centre of the town. Contrary to widespread reports of up to 15,000 (or even 20,000) human fatalities caused by the lava,<ref>"[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/194532/Mount-Etna Mount Etna (volcano, Italy)]". (the Encyclopædia Britannica has been wrongly cited as one source of this false information).</ref> contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English<ref>The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' 5th edition (1817) quotes from the eyewitness report of Lord Winchelsea, Ambassador to Constantinople, to the Court of England. It happens not to mention casualties. {{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia Britannica: Or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, Enlarged and Improved|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-icoAAAAMAAJ|edition=5th|volume=1|year=1823|publisher=A. Constable|location=Edinburgh|pages=248–249}} See also: {{cite book|author1=Charles Hutton|author2=Georges Shaw|author3=Richard Pearson|title=The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, from Their Commencement, in 1665, to the Year 1800; Abridged...: From 1665 to 1672. 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPGomGMoQJoC&pg=PA383|year=1809|location=London|pages=357–358; 383–387; 637–638}}</ref> mention no deaths related to the 1669 eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage). Therefore, it is uncertain where the enormous number of fatalities can be attributed. One possibility is confusion between this eruption and an earthquake that devastated southeast Sicily (including Catania) 24 years later in [[1693 Sicily earthquake|1693]]. A study on the damage and fatalities caused by eruptions of Etna in historical times reveals that only 77 human deaths are attributable with certainty to eruptions of Etna, most recently in 1987 when two tourists were killed by a sudden explosion near the summit.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-04-18-mn-1037-story.html |title=Eruption of Snow-Covered Mt. Etna Kills 2 Tourists and Injures 7 Others |newspaper=LA Times |access-date=2 June 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://boris.vulcanoetna.it/ETNA_andman2.html |title=Etna and Man |publisher=Boris.vulcanoetna.it |access-date=2 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722070430/http://boris.vulcanoetna.it/ETNA_andman2.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 }}</ref>

Since 1750, seven of Etna's eruptions have had durations of more than five years, more than any other volcano except Vesuvius.<ref name="GVPDatabase2020-12">{{cite journal | url=https://volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cfm?question=longesteruptions | title=What volcanoes have had the longest eruptions? | publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] | journal=Global Volcanism Program — Volcanoes of the World (Version 4.9.2) | editor-last=Venzke | editor-first=E. | date=10 December 2020 | doi=10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW4-2013 | access-date=15 December 2020}}</ref>