Europe’s most active volcano, with a sometimes extremely threatening appearance, is currently making quite a difference: Mount Etna, which is more than 3,300 meters high on the Italian Mediterranean island of Sicily, blows out white curls of smoke that then rise far up into the sky – unusually peaceful scenes.
The so-called volcanic vortex rings come from a newly formed crater on the southeast crater. They are caused by small explosions of gas bubbles in a narrow throat above a magma chamber.
Etna (in Italian: Etna) was given the name “Lady of the Rings” by locals. The Sicilians like to call their most famous mountain simply La Montagna – in the feminine form. It is by no means the first time that such figures have been seen: such rings were first mentioned 300 years ago, in 1724.
However, the phenomenon occurs rather rarely – and when it does, then not with such frequency. Thousands have been spotted since the new maw opened.
While the physical conditions under which volcanic vortex rings form are not yet fully understood, scientists believe they are the result of a combination of rapid gas release at the top of the magma channel and a regular shape of the emerging vent.