Etna East Territory: Zafferana Etnea.
Coordinates: 33S 503730E 4172064N (Utm Wgs84) | 37°41'44.8″N 15°02'32.3″E
ELEVATION: 1475 m
Development: +-50 mt total.
Nearest known location: Piano del Vescovo
Exploration: Easily accessible and visitable with just lights and helmet.
Detected by Paolo Teri (on 15.4.2021)
Notified to the relevant municipality on \\
Grotta Paolino is located on the lava of the 1792/3 eruption, a few meters from the SP92 road (Via Cassone). It is easily reached by car, parking in an accessible recess. The cavity has a structure divided into two channels, the first of which, about 10 meters long, was already known and easily accessible and was in fact also used as a makeshift shelter, as evidenced by the presence of a small stone surface used as a table. The lava flow cave considered here is a second cave, which was not known, whose narrow entrance opens in a northerly direction a few meters from the previous channel. It is accessed from a crack only about 25 cm high and 3 meters wide which requires good contortion skills! This semi-hidden entrance probably made it difficult to locate the hypogeum even when passing close to it. Inside there is a classic lava flow channel with a height of about 2 meters, therefore passable for the entire length of more or less 45 meters, with the presence of flow streaks and lava remelting pendants. The cave does not appear to have been registered and has been named after the surveyor.
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Dario Teri 15 April 2021 Unseen & Little-Known Etna Caves No Responses