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Grotta di Serracozzo
Formed during the 1971 eruption, the Serracozzo Cave is a classic example of cave from an eruptive fracture.
This cave is over 350m long, with a decreasing high from 8 m in the first part to 2m near the closing end.
There is a natural window on the vault that lets the light enter in the cave.
The external path to the cave is very beautiful and the total walking time is 45 minutes. |
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Grotta Catanese 1 and Grotta Catanese 2
These are horizontal caves originating from ancient eruptions that occurred around 500 BC. from the mouth of Monte Arso (1102 meters above sea level).
The name of these caves seems to be due to a legend about an Etnean woman killed by brigands inside one of the caves. These caves have distinct entrances that open side by side. The two corridors that branch off from them originally were part of a large single space interrupted by a collapse.
The first cave, Catanese 1, is 127 meters long with a vertical high of 12 meters. It has a majestic bell-shaped central room that reaches 10 meters in height with the floor covered by a chaos of blocks. The cave continues through a narrower flat passage where it is possible to admire beautiful recast stalactites and lava rolls. In the last room there is bat guano, because the cave is occupied by bats of the genus Myotis and Miniopterus during the winter hibernation. |
Grotta dell'Intralio
The cave consists of a set of lava flow galleries of various sizes located at different levels and variously oriented. Near the entrance of the northeast gallery there is a small altar. This gallery is about 40 m long. On the opposite side there are three overlapping galleries.
The upper gallery is 13 m long. The lower one is about 30 m long; it begins with a slope of large boulders that ends in a large room, several meters high, where you can observe two large lava rolls, among the largest known to us, and numerous large sheets protruding from the walls.
The intermediate cavity is the longest of the three branches and begins with a tunnel about 30 m long, over 2 m high, with a flat floor on which two rolls can be seen, smaller than the previous ones but longer. Further on, this gallery is divided into three branches located at different heights.
The eastern branch, at a lower altitude, is very short and has an accentuated slope, the central branch is 50 m long and its ceiling is low, so that it is necessary to crawl here and there; in some places it presents domes where it is possible to stand; the floor of this gallery is flat and consists of slag partly welded and partly movable.
The third branch has the same configuration of the previous one; in this branch a wedgeshaped boulder, detached from the ceiling, almost completely obstructs the passage, about halfway. The three branches end up with the ceiling and the floor joining together.
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Grotta Micio Conti
This cave is located in the natural reserve of the "Immacolatelle and Micio Conti Complex". This complex is also known as "Grotte di San Gregorio". It consists of a system of nine volcanic cavities discovered in a lava field of pahoehoe morphology, similar to those of the Hawaiian caves.
In the Immacolatelle caves, two collapses divided a single lava tunnel into separate parts, forming a complex of four caves. Inside those caves there are interesting morphologies: in the Micio Conti cave, the lava flow has left linings on the walls and small refusion stalactites on the ceiling. |
