LA SALSA E LA GURNA DI FONDACHELLO: EVOLUZIONE DI UN VULCANO DI FANGO E DI UNO STAGNO COSTIERO ALL’ESTREMA PERIFERIA NORD-ORIENTALE DELL’EDIFICIO VULCANICO ETNEO (SICILIA)

Abstract

Carveni P., Benfatto S., Maniscalco R., Salleo Puntillo M. & Sturiale G., The Salsa and the Gurna near Fondachello: evolution of a mud volcano and of a marsh on the farthest north-eastern periphery of Mt. Etna volcanic edifice (Sicily). (IT ISSN 0394-3356,
2006).
Evolution of a mud volcano and of a marsh are reconstructed in this paper; mud volcano (named Salsa di Fondachello) and marsh
(named Gurna di Fondachello) were located on the farthest north-eastern periphery of Mt. Etna volcanic edifice, near the Ionian coast.
Activity of mud volcano started on 1693, 11th January, during a disastrous earthquake; it was again active 1795 to 1832; his last activity
started in 1847 March; in this occasion the building collapsed. Today there is no trace of this mud volcano. Only a little methane emission is the evidence of the endogenous activity. The evolution of a marsh is based on comparison of topographic maps, edited from 1895 to 2000, on bibliography dates and an analysis of existing literature and of a detailed geological-geomorphological survey.
Today the Gurna is reduced to a small swamp and there isn't morphological evidence of the mud volcano; but, considering that the
mud volcano has been active three times in historical times, its reactivation today could represent a danger for the surrounding inhabited area.