Since final week, Mount Etna, the most important volcano in Europe, and among the many world’s most lively and iconic volcanoes, has been sending up nearly excellent rings of smoke into the air. The rings are a uncommon phenomenon that scientists seek advice from as volcanic vortex rings, that are produced roughly in the identical means because the smoke rings that some cigarette people who smoke are in a position to blow out of their mouths.
When does any volcano spout volcanic vortex rings, and what’s it about Mount Etna and this phenomenon?
However first, the setting — what and the place is Mount Etna?
Mount Etna, generally referred to easily as Etna, is an lively volcano on the east coast of Sicily, the most important island within the Mediterranean Sea, mendacity simply off the toe of the Italian “boot”. Etna’s peak is the best in Italy south of the Alps, and it’s Europe’s largest and one of the crucial lively volcanoes.
Etna’s summit has 5 craters, that are chargeable for many of the volcano’s eruptions; there are additionally “flank” eruptions that happen out of 300-odd vents of various sizes alongside the slopes of the mountain.
Etna is in nearly fixed exercise, and has seen, for the reason that yr 1600, not less than 60 flank eruptions and lots of extra summit eruptions. Lately, summit eruptions have occurred in 2006, 2007-08, on two events in 2012, in 2018, and 2021; flank eruptions have taken place in 2001, 2002-03, 2004-05, and 2008-09.
Etna has been a World Heritage Website since 2013, and based on UNESCO, the volcano’s eruptive historical past could be traced again 500,000 years. Not less than 2,700 years of this exercise has been documented.
And what are volcanic vortex rings?
Vortex rings are generated when gasoline, predominantly water vapour, is launched quickly by way of a vent within the crater. The vent that has opened up in Etna’s crater is nearly completely round, so the rings which have been seen above the mountain since April 2 are additionally round.
A scientific paper printed on volcanic vortex rings in February 2023 famous that the phenomenon was first noticed at Etna and Vesuvius in Italy in 1724, and has been documented in an engraved plate from 1755.
In more moderen instances, volcanic vortex rings have been noticed at volcanoes comparable to Redoubt in Alaska, Tungurahua in Ecuador, Pacaya in Guatemala, Eyjafjallajökull and Hekla in Iceland, Stromboli in Italy, Aso and Sakurajima in Japan, Yasur in Vanuatu, Whakaari in New Zealand, and Momotombo in Nicaragua. (‘Dynamics of Volcanic Vortex Rings’: Scollo et al., Scientific Stories)
Simona Scollo, a volcanologist on the INGV Etna Observatory in Catania, Sicily and a co-author of the 2023 examine, instructed The New York Occasions that volcanic smoke rings have been produced in the identical means as dolphins blow bubble rings. “They compress the water of their mouths, and utilizing their tongue they push it out of their mouths and create such a strain that it types a hoop,” Scollo instructed The NYT.
In response to the report, the rings can stay within the air for as much as 10 minutes, however are likely to disintegrate rapidly if circumstances are windy and turbulent.
Is Etna well-known for this phenomenon?
Sure. In July 2023, volcanologist Boris Behncke reported seeing “dozens of gasoline rings daily” above Etna. After this month’s phenomenon started, Behncke stated on Fb that “no volcano on Earth produces as many vapour rings as Etna”.
Since about one week, #Etna is releasing dozens of gasoline rings (additionally referred to as “volcanic vortex rings”) daily. They arrive from a slim vent within the SE a part of the Bocca Nuova crater, one of many 4 lively summit craters of the volcano, the identical vent described in my earlier submit. pic.twitter.com/TJ2P3yEgVn
— Boris Behncke (@etnaboris) July 23, 2023
The rings, Behncke posted on X final yr, “are produced by the explosion of gasoline bubbles inside a slim conduit, which shoots the gasoline at excessive velocity towards the floor. Attrition alongside the conduit partitions slows the motion of the gasoline jet, relative to the middle of the conduit”.
Volcanic vortex rings are “not as uncommon as is usually stated”, and “Etna is a very prolific producer of such rings”, Behncke stated in a linked submit.
Fuel rings will not be as uncommon as is usually stated, and #Etna is a very prolific producer of such rings. Within the yr 2000 the identical vent within the Bocca Nuova produced not less than 5000 gasoline rings – and on the identical time, greater than 60 paroxysms occurred on the Southeast Crater … pic.twitter.com/QXnFX3NYtf
— Boris Behncke (@etnaboris) July 23, 2023
In regards to the newest phenomenon, Behncke, who posted a video of Etna on Fb, stated: “…Now Etna is breaking all earlier data. Within the late afternoon of April 2, 2024, a small mouth opened on the northeastern fringe of the Southeast Crater, producing gusts of incandescent gasoline. The subsequent morning it was apparent that these blows have been producing a powerful quantity of steam rings, and the enterprise has since been happening, having already issued a whole lot if not 1000’s of those fairly rings.”
Does this imply Etna is about to erupt very quickly?
“No, no, no,” Scollo instructed The NYT when requested if the exercise meant Etna goes to erupt in a very spectacular means. The truth is, the exercise from the brand new vent was slowing down.
“It might probably cease as a result of the properties of the conduit that allowed for the formation of those volcanic vortex rings can change, possibly with obstructions,” she instructed The NYT.
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