Darlene Davis, age 15, of Lynn, Mass., for her question:

WHERE IS MOUNT ETNA?

One of the world's most famous volcanoes is Mount Etna, located in Italy on the eastern coast of the island of Sicily. It is a gigantic cone about 100 miles around that rises to a height of more than 11,000 feet.

Mount Etna (sometimes spelled Aetna) first erupted about 700 B.C. Since then there have been about 90 additional eruptions. The most disastrous eruptions came in 1169 when more than 15,000 died as the town of Catania was destroyed, and in 1669 when about 20,000 were killed.

Two villages were wiped out by a lava flow from Mount Etna in 1928.

Eruptions also occurred in 1947, 1950, 1951, 1960, 1971, 1975 and 1981.

Mount Etna is in Sicily's most populated area. The volcano is surrounded by more than 60 villages. There are orange groves and vineyards near the base, beautiful forests growing on the slopes and snow covered peaks to top it off.