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Mamma
Etna's countless children |
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In
the area between Trecastagni, Nicolosi and Zafferana on the southern and
southeastern flank of Etna there are dozens of larger and smaller, younger
and older pyroclastic cones. Nearly all of these bear official names.
But a cluster of three small and unconspicuous cones that lies 2-2.5 km
north of the town of Trecastagni has no name on the topographic maps of
the volcano, even at a 1:10,000 scale. These cones, whose age is not known
(but probably prehistoric), lie to the west of Monte S. Nicolò
and the largest (southern) of them rises only 50 m above the surrounding
landscape. The middle and northern cones are merely low, horseshoe-shaped
ramparts built asymmetrically around small craters. Access to these cones
is virtually impossible because all of the surrounding terrain is privately
owned, often being used as fruit gardens and vineyards, although several
homes are also present, some of them within the central of the three craters.
Some terrains are abandoned and overgrown by thorny plants and thus difficult
to traverse. The southern cone has a small forest in its upper portion;
on its lower flanks one of the most terrifyingly ugly buildings to be
seen on Etna looms through the trees, a hellish, bunker-like concrete
fortress that, in addition, does not seem to be inhabited.
About 2 km south of the eruptive complex described above, in the northern part of the town of Trecastagni, lies another small prehistoric cone, which is largely covered by buildings and thus is difficult to study. The summit area of this cone lies at about 610-615 m elevation, rising no more than 20-30 m above its surroundings; its base diameter is presumably little more than 200 m, and thus this is one of the smallest pyroclastic edifices in the area. |
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Copyright © Boris Behncke, "Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology" |
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Page set up on 9 March 2004, last modified on 11 March 2004 |