Page Type Page Type: Mountain/Rock
Location Lat/Lon: 38.78900°N / 15.21300°E
Additional Information County: Stromboli
Activities Activities: Hiking
Additional Information Elevation: 3032 ft / 924 m
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Statistics

Situated: Stromboli, Aeolian Islands, Italy
Summit at: 924m
Type: Stratovolcano (see below.)

Overview

The mountain / volcano, itself, is one of the Earth’s most active volcanoes, its summit measures at 924m making it one of Italy’s smallest active volcanoes, alongside Mount Etna, but surprisingly, more so. Stromboli is almost permanently active, as its eruptions occur rather often, with an insignificant gap of as little as 5 minutes at times, even though its eruptions can be as short as twenty seconds. Historians and scientists have predicted that this has been going on for at least 2,500 years, and could have been going on for as much as 5,000 years. Stromboli actually fits into Mount Etna approximately 3.6 times, height-wise, due to Etna being so big, and Stromboli being quite small. It’s category of volcano is a Stratovolcano. It is a very popular tourist attraction, and each year more and more visitors from all over are coming to Stromboli, and will be lead up by a guide, although, even though it is a rare case for Stromboli to be highly dangerous and prevailing, scientists have proved that it can happen, Stromboli has high potential for doing so and at any moment. You could just be on your way up, with a guide, then without any sign of warning, you would hear a glass-shattering thud and next thing you know, there is a flood of red hot lava, rolling down the volcano with leaps of pace, and your body is all that is left. Although, to prevent this from happening, a law has now been enforced that tourists aren’t allowed to go any higher than the 400m mark, this law is following from the 2002-2003 incident with the tsunamis.

Eruptions

o Stromboli’s last eruption began on May19th 2007; this eruption continued almost the same pattern for occurring eruptions for about 2,000 years. On this same date, two new craters opened up, one of which sending lava into the sea water.
o The largest eruption over the last hundred years was in the early 1930s and caused several deaths and the destruction of a large number of houses due to flying volcanic rocks / bombs.
o Large eruptions of Stromboli don’t occur often, but the most recent large explosion was on 29th December 2002, this resulted with the land closing to non-residents / tourists, for a number of months, while the island was permitted safe and cleared up. It simply began with a flow of lava (not an often event of Stratovolcanoes) then, by the next day, vast amounts of rocks collapsed, causing at least two major landslides and many tsunami waves, of which the highest measured 10metres. Overall, the explosion created a massive amount of damage on the island of Stromboli.
o On August 23rd 1998, the volcano erupted with more power than usual, and very loudly. People all across the island, claimed to have heard an ear-splitting thud that was so loud that the ground virtually shook. Ash flew high up, into the air, and many large rocks fell from the higher slopes. Fires were caused, on some slopes, which lead to a change of shape for the volcano.
o Not long later, on September 8th, the volcano, yet again, exploded in a rather eventful way, which people from Stromboli said was even worse than the recent explosion. Apparently, this explosion was stronger than the previous one, as it burnt through the little vegetation / crops that were growing on the slopes and shattered several windows as it erupted suddenly.
o The most powerful eruption was in 1558, destroying significant areas of land, due to this event being such a long time ago, there is not much more information on this particular day, although it apparently caused deaths.

The Island

The island that Stromboli has formed on, also called Stromboli, is just off the north coast of Sicily, which means that it is in Italy. It is one of the Aeolian Islands, the island alone having a population of between 300 and 550, which is just a fraction of what it was about 100 years ago, in 1910, the population was around 2500 at its highest point. Since then, many eruptions of very high powers have caused people to move away from the island. It is the furthest away of all seven from Sicily, but the north-eastern-most. Stromboli stands 924m above sea level, but infact rises to a total of 2,000 metres above the ocean floor. It covers 12.6km², which makes it the third smallest, and the third biggest out of the seven islands, with the size of each island averaging at 16.53km². Most of the 12.6km², is filled by the volcano itself. Stromboli is the second highest mountain / volcano out of all of the Aeolian Islands, with the highest being Monte Fossa delle Felici at 961m, situated on Salina, which is also the second largest island.

The Aeolian Islands

The Aeolian Islands are a series of small islands, off the coast of Sicily, Europe. There are seven islands:

o Alicudi
o Filicudi
o Salina
o Lipari
o Vulcano
o Panarea
o Stromboli

These seven islands average with a population of 1757 people per island, with the highest population being on Lipari, of 8500. Lipari also covers the largest area, of over 10km² more than the second largest island, Salina. Ever since the 1970s, the Aeolian Islands have become more and more of a popular tourist resort, Salina, Vulcano, and Stromboli imparticular.

Getting There and Accomodation

On the island of Stromboli, there are many hotels, guest houses and apartments for rent and to let out for a short period of time. It is forbidden to take cars and motorcycles onto the island in the Summer. However, within the island, it is rather easy to hire a bike, motor bike or elecric bike. The nearest airport to the Aeolian Islands is one in Reggio Calabria, from the airport,. there are several bus journeys to take you to each Aeolian Islands, although, you can also get a taxi to the harbour, and from then get a boat to the island itself. There is another larger airport in Catania, which has a slightly larger bus service and further ways of transport.

Parents 

Parents

Parents refers to a larger category under which an object falls. For example, theAconcagua mountain page has the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits' asparents and is a parent itself to many routes, photos, and Trip Reports.

Sicilia / SicilyMountains & Rocks