Acicastello and Acitrezza

Lachea Island and the Aci Trezza Stacks

The coast in front of Aci Trezza is dotted with a small “archipelago” of Stacks, called the “Archipelago of the Cyclops”. Lachea is the largest island, with an ellipsoidal shape 250 metres long and 150 metres wide and an area of just under 2 hectares. It is part of the Riserva naturale integrale Isola Lachea e faraglioni dei Ciclopi (Natural Reserve of Lachea Island and the Cyclops stacks), a protected area established by the Region of Sicily in 1998, and hosts a station for biological studies by the University of Catania.faraglioni di AcitrezzaThe island Lachea seems to match the description of the island inhabited only by goats found in the 9th book of Homer’s Odyssey. Archaeological finds (a diorite axe and a tomb) were found there, showing that the island was already frequented in prehistoric times.
From the Roman age, on the other hand, only objects found inside one of the island’s two large circular holes around one metre deep are left: pots, amphorae, loom weights, bone needles, fragments of a bone comb and a small oil lamp.
Like the other stacks that make up the small archipelago, the island is magmatic in origin. It might be what remains of a small magma chamber that was very superficial, known as a laccolith, dating back to around 500,000 years ago.

The different names of the “Muntagna”

The Grand Tour in Sicily

The senses tell Acicastello and Acitrezza

The senses tell Valle del Leone

The Jaci river

An ever-evolving volcano

The senses tell The Summit craters

The earthquake that changed the geography of eastern Sicily in 1693

The senses tell The Red Mountains

The senses tell Acireale

The senses tell Val Calanna

The senses tell The Etna viewpoint

The 1669 eruption in Catania

Lachea Island and the Aci Trezza Stacks

Summit crater activity between 2011 and 2019

Val Calanna, the first step towards a single large volcanic structure

The senses tell Torre del Filosofo

The Elliptical, the first great volcano of Etna

Humankind and the volcano: how should we behave? Volcanic risk

The 2001 eruption of Mount Etna, where the approach to volcanoes changed

The fault system of the “Timpe” of Acireale

The continuous evolution of the Etna summit craters

Etna, an ever-changing natural laboratory

Volcanic monitoring and eruption forecasting

Malavoglia

A fauna context yet to be discovered

Torre del Filosofo: at the base of the summit craters (2950 metres)

The Etna viewpoint

The Red Mountains and the destructive eruption of 1669

The “notches” of snow

Empedocles and his passion for Etna

The eruption of 1928 that destroyed the town of Mascali

Etna, wine terroir of excellence

Why did Etna form in that specific geographical position?

Valle del Leone and the Elliptical

Etna: a marvellous group of microclimates and vegetation

Acireale and its “timpe”

Acireale and reconstruction after the 1693 earthquake

Etna, the living mountain

The first Etnean volcanic events between Aci Castello and Aci Trezza