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Database of Etna’s historical eruptions (DANTE)

Branca S.^1*, Del Carlo P.², Behncke B.¹, Bonfanti P.¹

How to cite:  Branca S., Del Carlo P., Behncke B., Bonfanti P. (2025). Database of Etna’s historical eruptions (DANTE). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). https://doi.org/10.13127/etna/dante

Go to eruptions from the 6th century BC to the XVI century AD or to eruptions from the XVII century to the present.

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We present the database (DB) of the eruptive activity of Etna from the 6th century BC to present as reconstructed through a detailed review of previous catalogs of Branca and Del Carlo (2005), Guidoboni et al. (2014) and Branca and Abate (2019). Concerning the eruptive activity from 1970 onward, we used different datasets from monitoring reports in addition to the scientific literature. 

Eruptive activity of Etna is distinguished in two broad categories - summit eruptions, which take place at the summit craters (also called terminal eruptions) and in their vicinity (subterminal eruptions), and flank eruptions, which occur at altitudes from approximately 2800 m to a few hundred metres above sea level. Summit activity is more or less continuous over periods of years or even decades, and occasionally punctuated by powerful explosive episodes (lava fountains and subplinian events). By contrast, flank eruptions take place at irregular intervals, producing lava effusion commonly associated with weak explosive activity.

The DB is divided in two parts: (i) from the 6th century BC to the XVI century AD and (ii) from the XVII century to the present since the types and the quality of information available for the compilation of the datasets in these periods are different.

In particular, the DB of the eruptions in the period 6th century BC to XVI century AD is mainly based on the stratigraphic, tephrostratigraphic and geochronological datasets of the geological map of the volcano (Branca et al., 2011) and following updates (Tanguy et al., 2012; Branca et al., 2015). In addition, we have integrated the geological data with the original sources extracted from the Guidoboni et al. (2014) catalog for the eruptions of the Lower Middle Age and Modern Age.

The DB of the eruptions from the XVII century to the present is based on direct observations and documentation by scientists and volcanologists integrated with volcanological parameters as reported in the literature. The record of flank eruptions for this period is to be considered complete, whereas we cannot exclude some gaps in the information of summit activity up to the first half of the 20th century except for major explosive events.

The DB unites in a single source the information thus far distributed in different scientific publications, not all of which are readily accessible to a broad public. Finally, this DB will be open to contributions from other sources and information on the past and ongoing eruptive activity of Etna, and thus continuously updated.