Italy's Mount Etna Volcano Blows Smoke Rings

[jakeXT]

Mount Etna has begun to erupt again after a relatively quiet summer. Earlier this week it coughed out rare giant rings of steam along with roiling hot clouds and fountains of lava.

Volcanic eruptions have occurred at this spot, where the European and African tectonic plates collide, for about half a million years. Today Etna is one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupting from a rocky cone that rises more than 10,000 feet (3,329 meters) above the southeast coast of the Italian island of Sicily.

Photographer and volcanologist Tom Pfeiffer was there on the afternoon of November 11 in the middle of a storm that shrouded the volcano with heavy rain and snow. Icy winds occasionally cleared the sky, giving Pfeiffer and his companion glimpses of the volcano's puffing.

"We could hear explosions and spot the occasional ash plume," he recalls. "Suddenly I saw a perfect steam ring racing over the sky. And soon after that a second one, and a third one!"

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/131114-mount-etna-blows-smoke-rings-volcano-italy-science/

[Javaman]

1. Smoke Rings...

Where do the go,
Those smoke rings I blow each night?
Oh, what do they do,
Those circles of blue and white?

Why do the seem,
To picture a dream of love?
Why do the fade,
That phantom parade of love?

Puff, puff, puff, puff your cares away,
Puff, puff, puff, puff night and day.

Blow blow them into air,
silky little rings.
Blow blow them everywhere,
give your troubles wings.

[Hum melody of verses 1 & 2]

Oh little smoke rings I love,
Please take me above,
Take me with you.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I've never been able to blow a ring so perfectly.

[trusty elf]

3. Fantastic!

Thanks for posting this.

[yuiyoshida]

4. IT had to be EXTRAORDINARY LUCK

to catch that on film... Its not like a PLANNED EVENT. Wow!

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

5. I saw this and thought of the old song by the group Spirit,

"Nature's Way."

[packman]

6. Nature-

what a joker. Kills you with one volcano, entertains you with another.

[kenfrequed]

7. Hail Hephaestus

The god of volcanos and forges must be on a smoking break

[dickthegrouch]

8. Amazing footage

But something doesn't quite gel for me. Icy winds are supposed to have cleared the sky so that these could be seen. Shouldn't those same winds have shredded any ring in seconds, rather than leaving it perfect for minutes?

[Katashi_itto]

9. Meh..The Volcano can't top Gandalf