Preventative Measures Taken Against Etna

Mt. Etna is a double-edged sword to those who live near it. It both provides them with their livelihoods but when it sends lava flows down its slopes towards the towns on the lower slopes it threatens to take them away. Therefore on numerous occasions action has been taken to divert the flow away from important centres using a variety of methods.

The first attempt was made to divert the flow after the 1669 eruption which, although partial technical success in saving Catania by disturbing its channel, threatened another town and was reversed causing devastation in Catania and resulting in legislation lasting until 1983 outlawing any such future attempt. However, when in 1983 a flow advanced slowly in the direction of the towns of Belpasso and Nicolosi (although it was still several km from both), having already consumed parts of the ski lifts, several restaurants and other tourist facilities, isolated houses (many of them constructed illegally), arable land, forests and various sections of the road from Nicolosi to the Rifugio Sapienza area (at about 1900 m elevation). It has been a matter of controversy whether there was any real threat to the towns, but in any case it was decided that the lava flow be diverted by means of blasting the walls of its main feeding channel with explosives. This operation was carried out on 14 May 1983 and was described as a partial success however only a small fraction of the flow was diverted for short time into an artificial bed.

During the same eruption Rifugio Sapienza, the Astronomical Observatory and the Grand'Albergo dell'Etna were threatened but through the use of earthen barriers none of them were destroyed.

Nine years later, the town of Zafferana on the southeastern flank was in a flow's path. The strategy this time was the erection of a large earthen barrier not to halt but merely delay the flow until further measures could be put in place. Unfortunately it was overcome and so it was decided to block the supply of lava to the flow front which was put into action through U.S. Army helicopters dropping blocks of concrete into the lava tube and concluded again, but with the experience of the past, with the blasting of the tube walls, this time to great effect now inspiring confidence in people's attitudes towards preventing future flows.

Unfortunately the reality is not that simple