Otherworldly volcanic smoke ring phenomenon floating over Mount Etna mystifies onlookers

Mystical rings floated over Sicily in recent days that have astounded onlookers in Italy. Mount Etna put on an otherworldly show as the volcano released smoke rings into the Sicilian sky.

Last week, near-perfect volcanic smoke rings emerged from Mount Etna – Europe's largest and most active volcano. The volcanic vortex rings emerged from Etna, which rises 11,014 feet above the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea.

The smoke rings were spewed from a new crater on the volcano that opened on Tuesday on Etna's summit.

Astonishing photos and videos quickly went viral on social media platforms, mystifying viewers.

Photos of the bizarre phenomenon were shared online by Maria Liotta, who snapped the incredible images from her home in Bronte, Sicily, Italy, on April 5, 2024.

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Boris Behncke – volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania Boris – wrote in a Facebook post:

No volcano on Earth produces as many vapor rings (volcanic vortex rings) as Etna, we knew this for a long time. In 2000 and from July 2023 onward, the Bocca Nuova crater emitted thousands of these rings, and it is continuing. But now Etna is breaking all previous records. In the late afternoon of April 2, 2024, a small mouth opened on the northeastern edge of the Southeast Crater, producing gusts of incandescent gas. The next morning it was obvious that these blows were producing an impressive amount of steam rings, and the business has since been going on, having already issued hundreds if not thousands of these pretty rings. The video was taken at dawn on April 4, 2024, from our house in Tremestieri Etneo, it is timelapse (10x the normal speed).

Etna's first recorded eruption was in 1500 B.C., according to Oregon State University. Since then, Mount Etna has erupted at least 190 times.

Smoke rings have been documented at volcanoes worldwide, but the phenomenon is extremely rare.

The rare phenomenon is generated by the combination of rapid gas release and the circular shape of the vent.

The smoke rings are technically circles of gas.

The halo-like rings are made of condensed gases, including water vapor, that have "escaped the magma and shot up from the volcano's vent," according to the Daily Mail.

The New York Times reported, "For vapor rings to form, small gas bubbles had to merge and float up through the magma to create pressurized gas pockets. When such pockets explode, they could push out some gas fast enough to make a vapor ring. But the volcano’s opening also needed to be circular or slightly smushed."

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