Monte Solfizio is the dark cone rising from the steep outer south flank of the Valle del Bove, seen here on the morning of 24 May 1998. This cone was formed during an unrecorded eruption about A.D. 600 and emitted a lava flow whose lower portion is entirely covered by the lavas of 1634-1638 and 1792-1793. View is to the southeast from the Schiena dell'Asino, the southern rim of the Valle del Bove

Mamma Etna's countless children
Monte Solfizio
SSE flank, 15.027940° E, 37.701748° N
elevation: ~1835 m

About 2.5 km east of the tourist station at the Rifugio Sapienza on Etna's south flank, above the road that leads from Zafferana to the tourist station, a small, horseshoe-shaped pyroclastic cone sits perched on the steep outer south flank of the Valle del Bove. This is Monte Solfizio, product of an eruption that has been found to have occurred more recently than was previously believed, in the historical period. Palaeomagnetic dating of a lava flow that issued from the crater of this cone has revealed a probable age of about 1400 years, so that the eruption is inferred to have occurred around A.D. 600 (Tanguy et al., 2003). No historical account gives any description of this eruption, but this is the case also with many other eruptions during the period before 1600. Much of the Monte Solfizio lava flow lies now buried under more recent lavas, which were erupted in 1634-1638 and 1792-1793. The cone itself is only a few tens of meters high and elongate due to its position on a steep slope; its relatively small (~80 m E-W diameter) is characteristically open on the downslope (SSE) side, where lava issued through a breach in the crater rim.
The photos on this page were taken during several close passes (I never visited Monte Solfizio close-up) between 1998 and 2004.

Monte Solfizio seen from opposite directions on 24 May 1998 (left) and 28 May 1998 (right). Left image shows the horseshoe-shaped crater rim of Monte Solfizio in left foreground, with the cones of Monte Salto del Cane (left) and Monte Serra Pizzuta Calvarina (right) in the background, and many other pyroclastic cones further downslope on Etna's south flank in the distance. Right image, looking upslope, shows Monte Solfizio at left, and fan-shaped upper portion of the main 1792-1793 lava flow-field to the right

Monte Solfizio seen on two different days in mid and late January 2004. Left photo was taken from the summit of Monte Serra Pizzuta Calvarina, about 1.2 km to the SSW, about one week after the photos at center and right, which show views from southwest (center) and southeast (right)

Continue to Monte Serra Pizzuta Calvarina

Return to the Etna flank cone index

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