Eruption of Mount Etna devastates eastern Sicily

1131

Etna's southeastern flank split open in a violent eruption that sent rivers of lava streaming toward the Sicilian coastal plain and showered ash across the Ionian Sea as far as the Greek islands. The city of Catania, still painfully rebuilding from its last destruction, suffered once more as crops were buried and harbor waters choked with pumice. Norman lords recorded the disaster as God's judgment on the island.