Italy: Mount Etna releases perfect ‘smoke rings’ into the sky; see pictures

Sicily’s Mount Etna, Europe's tallest active volcano, captured attention recently not for volcanic eruptions, but for emitting circular rings of vapour from its summit. These ‘smoke rings,’ termed volcanic vortex rings, consist of gas and water vapour expelled from a newly formed crater.

Earlier, volcanic vortex rings were also documented at various volcanoes. However, Etna's latest rings were first observed last Wednesday. A study suggests that the cold atmosphere above the hot volcano causes water vapour to condense, rendering the rings visible.
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Ana Casas Ramos, a volcanologist at the Australian National University, explains to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the water vapour, initially colourless, turns whitish upon reaching the condensation level due to encountering cold air in the shallow atmospheric layers.


Describing the appearance, Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Etna observatory, likens the rings to those produced by a skilled smoker.

Standing approximately 10,900 ft tall and spanning an area of about 600 square miles, Etna has been active for 2.6 million years, with numerous eruptions recorded throughout history, including a significant event in 1669. There are also records of how volcanic eruptions spread destruction to dozens of villages, with the eruption's release of 990 million cubic yards of lava.
Etna has experienced intermittent activity in the 20th and 21st centuries, with the most recent observed eruption occurring last November. According to the 2023 study, observations of rings above Etna and Mount Vesuvius in Italy trace back to 1724, with sightings also reported at volcanoes across various regions, including Alaska, Japan, Ecuador, Guatemala, New Zealand, Vanuatu, and Nicaragua.

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While the mechanism behind the formation of these rings was previously unclear, the 2023 study utilised computer simulations to delve into the process. As per the study, the gas bubbles released from the top of a magma-carrying channel are crucial for ring formation. Behncke further elaborates, describing the formation of gas slugs that rapidly ascend through a narrow conduit, eventually rolling up the vent's sides to create the visible ring shapes via condensation.
The rings' white appearance indicates a composition primarily of water vapour, with Behncke noting that they consist of approximately 80 percent water vapour, along with sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide.