From the Arabic word maqlūb, meaning “overturned land,” the maccalube emerge here at an altitude of 420 meters, near the mining village of Santa Barbara. The small cones, averaging one meter in height, form when methane bubbles push saline clays and pressurized water to the surface; the mud, rich in salts, dries into cracked slabs that give the landscape a lunar appearance and prevent vegetation growth—hence the name “terrapelata,” or “bare earth.” Activity is generally calm, but occasionally the area experiences paroxysmal events with mud explosions and booms audible for kilometers, caused by rapid gas accumulation underground and studied to assess potential hazards.
For its scientific value, the site has been included in the Regional Inventory of Geosites and classified as a “geosite of national interest” within the Rocca di Cerere Geopark network, serving as a natural laboratory for understanding sedimentary volcanism in the Sicilian Miocene basin. The area is freely accessible and can be reached by a dirt road off SP122: a circular trail allows visitors to closely observe the cones and catch glimpses of the Southern Imera River flowing between white gypsum cliffs in the background. In summer at sunset, the low light sets the craters aglow with silvery reflections while the sulfurous smell mixes with the song of steppe larks; in winter, instead, the hill becomes a muddy chessboard crossed by milky rivulets, reminding visitors that here the earth truly overturns beneath their feet.