An account is given of the neotectonic development of the Etna volcano in relation to surrounding tectonic regions of Sicily, the Tyrrhenian Sea and southern Italy. The activity of Mt Etna and the earlier Iblean volcano are related to the opening and subsidence of the Tyrrhenian basin since the middle Pliocene. With respect to the Corsica-Sardinia continental block, both the Aeolian volcanic arc and Calabrian outer arc are migrating ESE at about 2-3 cm/year, and subducting oceanic lithosphere of the Ionian basin. Although Mt Etna lies in front of the Aeolian arc in what is normally a non-volcanic (compressional) region, rates of arc migration are sufficiently rapid to allow crustal dilatation normal to the Calabrian arc at the present day, even although it is being rapidly uplifted at a rate of 1 mm/ year. Mt Etna is located on the west side of the Messina fault where it is intersected by ENE trending sinistral strike-slip faults on the north side of the Sicilian fore deep that link its volcanic activity with volcanism at many centres in the Sicily Channel. Monitoring of recent earth movements in the Mt Etna region by retriangulation, geodimeter lines, tiltmeters and tide gauges would provide a measure of the secular strain pattern and in time give warning of crustal extension, volcanotectonic doming and lava eruption.