Mount Etna is known as one of the most powerful volcanoes on the planet, but now one researcher thinks it may not be a ‘real’ volcano after all.
Despite the tonnes of molten rock it spews across the island of Sicily, Etna also produces around 7 million tonnes of steam, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide every year.
As a result, one scientist claims the mountain is more like a giant hot spring than a ‘true volcano’.
Mount Etna is the highest volcano in Europe and measures 3,330 metres (10,926 feet). It spewed around 70 million tonnes of lava onto the island of Sicily in 2011 and also produces around 7 million tonnes of steam, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide every year
Professor Carmelo Ferlito, from the University of Catania in Sicily, studied the volcano and how it is fuelled, according to a report in the New Scientist.
It is commonly believed that the water, CO2 and sulphur dioxide produced from Etna’s eruptions are released from magma as it rises to the surface.
Professor Ferlito says that for this to be true, Etna would need to erupt ten times more lava than it currently does.
Another theory that tries to account for the large amounts of gas produced states that the gas escapes before the lava reaches the surface and then the lava retreats back into the Earth.
This constant flux caused by the magma produces a ‘breathing’ affect, as the crust rises and falls with the movement of the lava.
To maintain the output of gases though, this would require an injection of more than 10,000 kg of magma every second.
This would ‘inflate the volcano like a children’s balloon’, Professor Ferlito says.
This constant flux of the mountain produces a ‘breathing’ affect, as the crust rises and falls with the movement of the magma beneath. This animation was captured by NASA and shows the movement of the Earth around the volcano
Professor Ferlito’s research focuses around the idea that the amount of different materials found is not explained by current theories.
The study suggests that the chamber that feeds the volcano doesn’t just hold magma, instead it has lots of carbon dioxide, water and sulphur dioxide
‘Only 30 per cent is molten rock,’ says professor Ferlito.
Such a system is closer to a hot spring than to a volcano.
The source of the water to feed the eruptions could come from the water-rich pockets inside the Earth, according to professor Ferlito.
In his research paper, he also points to the growing evidence of a huge amount of water in the Earth’s mantle – the section of the Earth below the crust.
Research published last year says that there is as much water here as in all of the Earth’s oceans combined.
Dr Kayla Iacovino, a volcanologist from Arizona State University told New Scientist the idea is ‘inventive’.
Dr Iacovino proposed an alternative theory in 2015 that suggests the gas comes from deep within the Earth as magma churns around producing gas.
This paper was published in Earth-Science Reviews.
Mount Etna is found on the northeaster corner of the Italian island Sicily. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and erupts regularly