How do volcanologists study volcanoes?
Volcanology is the study of volcanoes, a specialised area of geology and one of its most exciting. While geology is often concerned with events millions of years old, or even geologically faster-moving events, such as glacial erosion, volcanoes may be considered “geology in motion”; when volcanic eruptions occur, the local landscape can be dramatically changed almost instantly. A famous active volcano, Mount Etna rises above Catania. Sicily’s second largest city, Mt Etna has one of the world’s longest documented records of activity, dating back to 1500 BC. Mount Etna is a stratovolcano with three summit craters: the Northeast Crater, the Central Crater, and the Southeast Crater. Click on this link for more about volcanoes. Eruptions from Mount Etna are of two main types: explosive eruptions, with emissions of lava, occur in the summit craters, while flank eruptions happen less often and occur from fissures below the summit. The Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Volcanologia (INGV) in
