🚨 Yesterday’s footage of the massive, unexpected eruption on Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy 🇮🇹 proved one thing
Humans have officially mastered a new art form:
Saving their own skin while filming it at the same timepic.twitter.com/DUNbBCNJH8
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) June 3, 2025
An eruption of scalding lava, gases, and ash caught tourists off guard while hiking on Italy’s Mount Etna on Monday, June 2. Despite dozens of hikers nearing the volcano’s crater when the eruption occurred, miraculously, everyone safely evacuated.
First-person video accounts of the eruption show hikers fleeing down the mountain slopes as clouds of ash darken the sky, but not everyone displayed the urgency necessary to outrun an eruption. One woman is seen chewing a bite of her sandwich as she descends, and several others are preoccupied with their cameras, making sure they capture everything on video as they escape.
Mount Etna, a stratovolcano on the Italian island of Sicily, is Europe’s tallest active volcano, reaching an altitude of over 11,000 feet. The volcano’s activity has been documented as far back as 1500 B.C. The eruption from June 2 – which spewed ash to an altitude of 21,325 feet and caused a portion of the crater to collapse – is classified as a pyroclastic flow. It was the strongest such activity on the mountain since 2014.
As per the United States Geological Survey, a pyroclastic flow is a combination of hot lava blocks, pumice, volcanic gas, and ash that move at high speeds. Temperatures in the cloud range between 390 and 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, making these eruptions extremely dangerous.
Luckily for the hikers, the cloud of ash fell down the other side of the volcano, away from their position. Otherwise, the eruption would have been inescapable and likely would have proven deadly.
An American couple honeymooning in Italy, Nicholas DiLeonardi and Michelle Nigro-DiLeonardi of New York City, told ABC they felt “nervous” when hiking expeditions continued going up the mountain despite visible smoke.
“When we were up there, I was like, ‘OK, if this is another Pompeii, at least we’re together,’” said DiLeonardi, referencing the deadly Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D.
Reports say there was no significant impact on the towns and people in the volcano’s vicinity, other than closing the slopes to hiking.
