Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured this detailed photo of Mount Etna, one of Europe’s tallest peaks, standing 3,403 meters (11,165 feet) above sea level. It is also one of the world’s most active volcanoes. As the station passed overhead on October 14, 2024, long gray and brown plumes emanated from the Italian peak, which was actively emitting gas and ash.
The plumes merge and pass directly over the port city of Catania (lower right), which lies on the southeastern margin of the volcano. The volcano is cone-shaped but appears roughly circular in this vertical view from above, with a basal circumference of 140 kilometers (87 miles). Etna’s darker-colored rocks and highly vegetated areas contrast with the surrounding lighter-toned countryside.
Etna is a stratovolcano, a type of volcano that can erupt explosively, located on the eastern coastline of the Italian island of Sicily. Prominent features on Etna include the dark lava flows that spread radially down the slopes of the volcano. The youngest flows are identified by the darkest colored rocks. A lava flow from one of the largest eruptions, in 1669, overran the western suburbs of Catania. The noticeable structure near the summit is a caldera, a depression where the volcano collapsed inward. Small cones on the lower western slopes indicate other minor centers of eruption.
Etna holds significant economic importance for Sicily, with nearly one-third of the island’s population living on the slopes of the volcano, partly because volcanic soils are fertile for agriculture and partly because of tourism. Switchback roads on the flanks of Etna indicate the intensive use of the volcano’s slopes; these roads appear in the high-resolution version of the image.
Mount Etna experiences frequent periods of unrest, which increases the likelihood that astronauts on the space station can observe its volcanic plumes. An earlier astronaut photo shows the volcano during a more vigorous eruption in 2002.
References & Resources
Astronaut photograph ISS072-E-64054 was acquired on October 14, 2024, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 210 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 72 crew . The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth . Caption by Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Amentum JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.
