Landforms and landscapes of Mount Etna (Sicily): relationships between a volcano, its environment and human activity

Abstract

Mount Etna is the highest relief in Sicily and represents a unique environment because of its long established and almost continuous eruptive activity, that has moulded its landforms and which has produced distinctive landscapes. Over the past 60 ka both destructive and constructive geological processes have produced the principal morphological features of the volcano such as the wide Valle del Bove depression, monogenic scoria cones and extensive lava flow fields. Relationships between Etna, its environment and human activity began in the Neolithic Period within the mountain foot region and have developed over millennia. Even though there has been a rapid rate of resurfacing by lava during historic times, the impact on human activity has been short-lived, recovery has been rapid and society has adjusted to the ever present hazard in distinctive ways.