Lightning, Ash and Lava Plumes From Mount Etna’s Voragine Crater

Summary: Lighting, ash and lava plumes light up Mount Etna's Voragine Crater during 2015's three-day eruption from Wednesday, Dec. 2, to Saturday, Dec. 5.

Landsat 8 image of southeastward-streaming volcanic plume from Mount Etna's reawakening Voragine Crater on December 3, 2015: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via NASA Visible Earth

For the first time in two years, Mount Etna’s Voragine Crater glowed with volcanic lightning flashes and altitudinous ash and lava plumes as the 70-year-old central crater in northeastern Sicily remembered to erupt for three days, from Wednesday, Dec. 2, to Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015.

Voragine Crater’s resurrection featured the mysterious phenomenon of volcanic lightning, also known as a dirty thunderstorm. Through a still unclear process, lightning storms may form within volcanic plumes.

First formed on Mount Etna in 1945, Voragine Crater has churned only small, below-rim explosions since its last eruption in 2013. On Dec. 2, however, the escape of explosive glows, despite Etna’s poor visibility, beyond the crater’s rim hinted at renewed eruptive activity.

The following morning, on Wednesday, Dec. 3, Voragine Crater displayed its first violent surface eruption, known as a paroxysm, as ash and lava plumes brilliantly fountained into the cloudless sky. A total of four paroxysms escaped from the resuscitated crater over the course of three days, from Dec. 2 to Dec. 5.

Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia INGV) placed the greatest intensity of the first fountain as occurring between 1:20 and 2:10 a.m. Central European Time (02:20 and 03:10 Coordinated Universal Time). Sustained lava fountains blazed over 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) above Voragine’s rim. Some jets of hot volcanic spews reached heights of 3 kilometers (1.86 miles).

By Sunday, Dec. 6, Voragine Crater still displayed elevated activity, with high levels of explosions and tremors, but the volcanic drama was shifting to a new pit crater, formed by collapse or sinking of the ground, on the upper flank of one of Mount Etna’s two southeastern craters. The pit crater was identified as the major source of Mount Etna’s restlessness in November. Originally Voragine Crater was credited with only minor contributions to such signs of internal unrest as degassing, mild below-surface explosions and ashy puffs.

Sicilian photographer Marco Restivo documented the spectacular activity on Dec. 3, the first day of Voragine Crater's eruptive resurrection, as fountains of ash and lava jetted above the crater's surface for the first time in two years. Available on YouTube as "Heaven and Hell: Mount Etna Erupts," Restivo's images have attracted over 438,000 since publication Dec. 3.

Restivo, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Ingegneria Gestionale (Management Engineering) from Sicily's University of Catania, laced his photographs and time-lapse footage together via photo editing software to create a dazzling record of the world's second most active volcano. The free-lance photographer downloads stunning images to his Flickr account and also distributes via Demotix, a global picture and video newswire, and via Etna Walk, a video and photography association.

Mount Etna on first day, Dec. 2, of three-day eruption: severe-weather.EU @severeweatherEU via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Voragine Crater's plume: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via NASA Visible Earth @ http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=87097

Mount Etna on first day, Dec. 2, of three-day eruption: severe-weather.EU‏ @severeweatherEU via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/672442185380401152

For further information:

"Aggiornamento Etna." INGV. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ http://www.ct.ingv.it/it/?option=com_content&view=article&id=1072

Barcroft TV. "Heaven and Hell: Mount Etna Erupts." YouTube. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0HULgTjaSA

"Etna volcano - eruption update." Volcano Discovery > Volcanoes > Europe (continent) > Italy > Etna > Eruption / activity update. June 6, 2015.
Available @ http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/etna/current-activity.html

"Marco Restivo." Flickr.
Available @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcorestivo

"Marco Restivo." LinkedIn Italy.
Available @ https://it.linkedin.com/in/marco-restivo-2177274b

severe-weather.EU‏ @severeweatherEU. "Absolutely amazing view of Etna in eruption last night! Photo: Marco Restivo." Twitter. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/672442185380401152