The Salinelle of Paternò are a geological and natural area where salt water, mud and gas come out of the ground, forming small mud volcanoes. In 2016 the Sicilian Region recognised them as a geosite and included them in the «System of the Salinelle of Mount Etna». Besides water and mud they mainly emit carbon dioxide, with nitrogen, methane, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, helium and oily traces of hydrocarbons; their activity seems linked to the degassing of the magma chamber that created the small volcano of Paternò, the town's hill.
What to see
There are three sites. The Salinelle dei Cappuccini, or dello Stadio, on the far north-western edge of town, are the largest, about thirty thousand square metres, and the most active: clay ground with no vegetation, whose appearance changes with the weather; they take their name from the Capuchin church that stood there between 1556 and 1596, later abandoned because of the unhealthy air. The Salinelle del Fiume are on the left bank of the Simeto, near Passo d'Ipsi, three kilometres west of the town, with water rising at 50-60 degrees and small mud volcanoes that form and die out even within a few days. The Salinelle di San Biagio-Belpasso, in the Vallone Salato district, are smaller and hard to reach, but have sizeable active mud volcanoes and mud rich in oily traces.
According to radiometric tests they formed in the sixth millennium BC, and recent excavations have found Neolithic pottery made with their mud. Diodorus Siculus already mentioned them; the Romans used them as a spa and the Arabs used the mud for various purposes. Since 1736 they have been studied by many scientists, starting with the Paternò physician Vincenzo Chisari, and the most intense phases came in 1866, 1878, 1953 and 1956.
Visiting
They are open-air areas on clay and muddy ground: access conditions for each site should be checked beforehand.
Our editors' tip
In the past the mud of the Salinelle was used to treat rheumatic pain, in both people and animals.
