Heimaey, Iceland
Mt. Etna is only one of a huge number of volcanoes in the world and so there are many other sorts of volcanoes. As it happens Mt. Etna is actually very hard to identify in terms of its eruption, as during different eruptions it will show different traits. Predominantly, it will adopt a Strombolian type eruption of a mildly explosive nature with discreet, separate bursts of glowing material. However, it is also known to have taken on the lava fountain heralded, Hawaian type, and with 10km high plumes of smoke has also erupted on occasion in a manner commonly referred to as 'Vulcanian.'
The one eruption it extremely rarely (not in the last 2000 years!) takes on is the Plinian type as occured to great effect in 79AD as the other renowned Italian volcano, Vesuvius, erupted extremely violently to cover the entire city of Pompeii in ash.
This is one demonstration of how Etna is set aside from some of the other recently renowned volcanoes as it is much less explosive than Mt. St Helens, which had the force to blow its top quite literally; and as it was hardly as deadly as the death toll of Nevado del Ruis (Etna having only caused 73 fatalities in its entire history), 23,000, and carries nowhere near such a widespread impact as Mt. Pinatubo where 58,000 people were evacuated in total and 100,000 were made homeless as a result of the eruptions.
A lahar in the Philippines, one of the primary causes of homelessness
