This is a view from south into the uppermost of three large explosion craters that lie in the area between Monte Pizzillo and Monte Timparossa, on Etna's Northeast Rift. The feeder dike of the initial eruptive fissure on which these craters later formed is visible as a sharp rock spine on the far side of this crater, which has a 100 x 130 m. The two craters located further downrift and probably related to the same eruption have strikingly similar dimensions. Photo taken in late September 1999

Mamma Etna's countless children
Unnamed craters at Monte Cacciatore
NE flank, 15.016065° E, 37.798754° N (middle crater)
Summit elevation: 2231, ~2200 and ~2150 m

Hikers descending on the crest of the Northeast Rift of Etna from Monte Pizzillo and the 1879 craters to Monte Timparossa have the chance to see numerous older and younger crater. Among the most spectacular of these is a group of three aligned craters surrounded by low pyroclastic rims that lie about halfway between Monte Pizzillo and Monte Timparossa. The date of the eruption that produced these craters is not known, but they appear quite youthful and furthermore lie on the same trend as the 1879 fissure system, so that it cannot be excluded that they formed during the same eruption. A low hill (not a pyroclastic cone) near the middle crater in this cluster bears the name Monte Cacciatore, and therefore I call these craters "the craters of Monte Cacciatore" here. All three craters are elongate in NNE-SSW direction (that is, the trend of the Northeast Rift) and have very similar diameters, 100 x 130 m.
I passed near these craters in late September 1999, when the photograph shown above was taken.

Continue to Monte Timparossa

Return to the Etna flank cone index

Copyright © Boris Behncke, "Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology"