Inside The Glaciers Project: Laser Scanning Of The Grotta Del Gelo (Mount Etna, Italy)

As part of activities of the “Inside the Glaciers” project, managed by an Italian team of speleologists and geologists with the purpose of studying several ice-caves in Europe and South America, a research campaign was recently carried out in Mount Etna (Sicily, Italy). This volcano is the highest active in Europe and hosts more than 200 caves including Grotta del Gelo (Ice Cave) which is located on the Northern flank of Mount Etna at an altitude of about 2040 m a.s.l. This cave was formed during the Etna’s long and most destructive eruption dated from 1614 to 1624 and is one of the most famous because it hosts a small glacier, maybe the southernmost of the Northern hemisphere. Aim of this …