Mighty cone of Monte S. Leo rises about 150 m above the surrounding landscape, and two peaks differing about 10 m in height (the eastern peak, to the right, is actually the higher, 1194 m) mark its summit area. The crest between the two peaks separates two large summit vents, of which the southern one is seen here, having a characteristic notch on its south side. A low lava shield produced by an effusive vent at the southeast base of the cone is seen in the foreground, with a beautiful land villa standing on its side. Photograph taken on 22 April 2000, looking northwest

Mamma Etna's countless children
Monte San Leo
S flank, 14.985100° E, 37.654566° N
Summit elevation: 1194 m

Impressive sentinel standing to the left once the drive up Etna's south flank enters into its serious phase, Monte S. Leo is a morphologically youthful cone rising nearly 150 m above its southwestern base. Crowned by an irregular summit crater with two vents, both inclined to the north and south, respectively, this cone is certainly Holocene in age, and probably erupted sometime during the past few thousand years. Its stratigraphic relationship with the 122 B.C. tephra layer (produced by a powerful summit eruption; Coltelli et al. 1998) indicates that it is older than that date (Del Carlo and Branco 1998).
Monte S. Leo lies at the southern margin of a zone with a high density of flank cones extending uslope on the south flank to the Montagnola (now, after the 2001 and 2002-2003 eruption, this zone extends even higher upslope), which is the main portion of the South Rift of Etna. To the south and southeast, there is a gap in the rift, which then continues at Monte Serra Pizzuta (about 3.5 km SE of Monte S. Leo) with another area of densely clustered cones and opens fan-wise to the southeast.
Besides the main pyroclastic edifice of Monte S. Leo there is a smaller (mostly effusive) vent at its SSE base, forming a circular pit several tens of meters deep and surrounded by a low shield about 35 m high. This probably formed during the same eruption that built up Monte S. Leo. It is now occupied by private terrains with fine land villas. A small cluster of private homes (some of them permanently inhabited) lies immediately to the east. In contrast to this well-maintained area, the northern side of Monte S. Leo has a somewhat desolate aspect, with illegal waste disposals and never-completed buildings constructed without authorization.
I visited and climbed Monte S. Leo on 22 April 2000, when most of these photographs were taken.

Distant views of Monte S. Leo. Left image is a view from Monte Gemmellaro, 3.3 km to the northeast, taken on 10 May 2000. The smaller cone to the right of Monte S. Leo is Monte Mazzo. Center and right images were taken from the south flank of Monte Sona, about 1.3 km to the north, on 22 April 2000. The Monti Rossi are visible in the distance in the center image

Left and center: Monte S. Leo seen from its south base. The deep notch in the south rim of its summit crater can be clearly seen Right: summit area of Monte S. Leo, seen from eastern crater rim. South vent of the summit crater, which is open to the south, is visible between the crater rim in the foreground and the west rim of the crater in the background. Photos taken 22 April 2000

Different views of the summit crater of Monte S. Leo on 22 April 2000. Left image shows high east crater rim in the background and south vent in the foreground. Center image shows septum that separates the southern and northern vents of the crater, and high east rim of the crater in the background. The north vent, largely overgrown with trees and bushes and with a deep notch in its north rim, is visible in right photo

Two views of the vents that lie at the southeast base of Monte S. Leo, taken from the southern summit vent of the cone. Left is a panoramic view (with the conspicuous cones of Monte Serra Pizzuta and Monti Rossi in the background) showing the low shield that hosts these vents, which were the site of lava effusion during the Monte S. Leo eruption. Right image is a zoom on the circular pit (filled with vegetation) that lies in the center of the shield and belongs to a nice private terrain. Photos taken 22 April 2000

Continue to Monte Leone

Return to the Etna flank cone index

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