On Monday 2 June 2025, the Mount Etna volcano in Sicily erupted. Footage of the explosion has been going viral on social media, while authorities assure locals and tourists that it is currently safe to travel to the island.
Mount Etna is located on the island of Sicily near the city of Catana and is known as Europe’s largest active volcano and the most active stratovolcano worldwide. For the last couple of years, the volcano has been known to erupt at least once a year but those eruptions haven’t caused any major issues recently. The last major eruption happened on 11 February 2025 but ever since, there has been continual activity.
While the main eruption caught on many a video happened around noon on Monday 2 June, the volcano had shown earlier signs of activity. According to Volcanic Discovery, volcanic tremors started around 10 pm on Sunday 1 June before reaching a high at 1 am in the night from Sunday to Monday. The eruption then started at 3.50 am according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology with strombolian explosions of growing intensity.
However, at 11.24 am on Monday morning, tourists visiting the volcano were treated to a very spectacular sight when Mount Etna spewed a massive cloud of black smoke. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology says the plume consisted of ash, gas, and rock. According to them, the pyroclastic flow was probably produced following a collapse of material from the northern flank of the southeast crater.
CO2 from,natural sources like this eruption of Mt. Etna are the main source of carbon in the atmosphere–not human generated CO2. pic.twitter.com/ZfOOOhqShl
— Jim Pfaff (@jimpfaff) June 2, 2025
Camera footage from the event shared online shows tourists fleeing from the mountain once the eruption had started. Some visitors, however, can be seen trying to get closer to the event in order to get a better look. No one got hurt during the eruption, as the access to the summit of the volcano had already been closed off due to Mount Etna’s increased activity.
Jeeze! Another video of Etna's eruption yesterday.
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) June 3, 2025
It doesn't look real but it is! 👀pic.twitter.com/gUfBSt5m5c
Is it safe to visit Sicily?
Renato Schifani, president of the region of Sicily, stated that there was no danger for the population according to experts. Despite the impressive character of the eruption, the lava flow did not pass the edge of the so-called Valley of the Lions, visited by tourists on a daily basis. Tourists and locals alike can thus continue their plans on the island as scheduled. The head of the regional civil protection unit, Salvo Cocina, recommended however to avoid the area of Mount Etna as a precaution.
“I spoke to the INGV, everything is normal and under control. There is no criticality, it is a phenomenon that repeats itself and, in light of the monitoring of the volcano, was already expected. So much so that access to the summit areas had been prevented. It is our mountain, which we have now begun to know in all its manifestations,” the mayor of Catania, Enrico Tarantino, told the local media outlet Corriere della Sera.
During the eruption, the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Toulouse, one of the few institutes in the world specialised in monitoring the aviation risks caused by volcanic events, stated that the ash plume had reached an altitude of approximately 6,400 metres. This caused a red aviation alert to be issued, although this was downgraded to orange once the cloud had dissipated. While during an eruption, flights are mostly cancelled or redirected, all four airports on Sicily (Catania-Fontanarossa (CTA), Palermo-Falcone Borsellino (PMO), Trapani-Birgi (TPS), and Ragusa-Comiso (CIY)) are operating as usual, with just some minor delays on Monday.
