Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology

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Monte Lepre complex
Monte Lepre (center right) is the largest of a cluster of cones probably formed during a single eruption in about A.D. 600. The smaller symmetrical cone in the center is Monte Arso, about 150 m lower than Monte Lepre, and the low irregular and forested hill at left marks the site of effusive activity during the eruption that created the cone complex. This view was taken from near Monte Ruvolo, about 2 km to the SW, in May 1999. The northwest flank of the main edifice of Etna, culminating in Punta Lucia (the small knob at the crest in upper right corner of the image), is seen in the right background; the 1763 lava flow of the Monte Nuovo eruption is in the foreground

Mamma Etna's countless children
Monte Lepre and Monte Arso
W flank, 14.92018° E, 37.75428° N
Summit elevation: 1643 m (S rim of crater)

 

Lying at the northern margin of the field of pyroclastic cones on Etna's west flank, Monte Lepre is not a single cone but the largest in a cluster of cones formed probably during a single eruption. This eruption, which by some researchers was tentatively attributed to an eruption in the 17th century, occurred actually about 1000 years earlier, around A.D. 600. Monte Lepre is one of the larger cones in this area, rising narly 200 m above its western base and nearly 100 m above its eastern base. About 650 m to the west of Monte Lepre lies the smaller Monte Arso (the burnt mountain - one of three cones of this name on the flanks of Mount Etna) with a summit height of 1512 m (that is, 151 m lower than Monte Lepre), and still 200 m to the NW rises a low nameless hill (1477 m) that may correspond to the main effusive vent of the A.D. ~600 eruption.
I have never visited the Monte Lepre cluster; in October 2002 I passed near the south base of Monte Lepre and Monte Arso. The best photographs were taken from some distance in May 1999 and are shown on this page.

Monte Lepre
Distant view of the Monte Lepre cone cluster from the summit of Monte Minardo (about 4.5 km to the SW), taken in May 1999. Monte Lepre lies to the right, Monte Arso immediately to the left, and the small cone built at the effusive vents still further to the left. The rounded cone in the left distance is Monte Maletto

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