Mount Etna blows ‘smoke rings’ into sky in ultra rare phenomenon

Visitors to Mount Etna in recent days were dazzled by the sight of a series of smoke rings appearing to rise out of the volcano's maw, as though the very Earth itself was blowing smoke.

The active volcano located in Italy has long been a popular tourist destination despite being such a busy little geographical feature, but those visiting earlier this month were treated to quite the spectacle.

Footage captured at the site shows a series of smoke rings rising from the volcano before floating up, up and away.

Volcanoes all around the world can produce smoke rings, but it's rare for one volcano to be putting out this many.

Fortunately there are some people who know all about volcanoes who understand what's going on here.

Professor Matthew Watson, a volcanologist (what a cool job title) at the University of Bristol, told ITV News all about why Mount Etna blows smoke rings from time to time.

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"I'm not sure it's a portent for anything particularly serious, but it just means that the volcano's geometry and degassing is in a bit of a sweet spot," he said of the incredibly rare phenomenon.

"What you tend to see in most volcanoes is just a puff of gas, but because Etna's geometry is such that it produces these sort of circular vents of a certain size, typically tens of metres.

"Occasionally you get gas pushed out in a way that forms a smoke ring and what happens is that the gas is pushed out through a ring.

"The reason they persist is because a vortex is set up, you can actually see the individual rings spin and that's what holds them together and keeps them in the atmosphere for a few minutes."

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So there you have it, this isn't some sign of the end times or portent of doom but it is very nice to look at, so we can all admire Mother Nature's handiwork on this one.

Described as 'Europe's most active volcano', Etna has a long history of eruptions being recorded throughout the ages while further eruptions have continued into the present day.

In fact, footage of Etna erupting in more recent times ended up being used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for the movie's climactic battle on a volcanic planet.

Smoke rings rising from Etna were previously recorded in the 1970s, 2000, 2013 and 2023 so the volcano has a proven track record for this sort of behaviour.