These gas rings are about 80% water vapor
Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, put on a spectacular show this weekend. It sprays out a series of nearly perfect circles, like smoke rings, or even like a fleet of giant spaceships floating peacefully across the sky.
Scientists have a more down-to-earth explanation for this phenomenon. These are “volcanic vortex rings” formed by the rapid release of gases and steam from Etna’s new crater.
“These smoke rings look very much like the ‘smoke rings’ produced by smokers,” said Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the Etna Observatory of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. Washington post.
Beinecke said the unusual rings are the result of gas-laden magma bubbling beneath a cylindrical opening in Etna’s new crater that was formed last week.
# Mount EtnaThe southeastern crater continues to emit numerous graceful vapor rings (“volcanic vortex rings”), a phenomenon never seen before. Someone said “Maybe because we’ve been getting so much bad news lately, Mount Etna decided to do something simple and beautiful.” April 5, 2024 pic.twitter.com/zVxsKzX99K
— Boris Behnke (@etnaboris) April 5, 2024
“Imagine a very narrow cylindrical tube with magma inside it at a certain depth,” Mr Behnke said. “Every once in a while, a bubble will form on the surface of the magma, then burst and eject a stream of gas at high speed through the pipe.”
As the bubbles rise through the narrow, circular vents, they are squeezed into their shape, forming a donut-shaped bubble.
“If the vents are irregularly shaped, you’re not going to get rings,” he told the outlet.
About 80% of these gas rings are water vapor, with most of the remainder being sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. The water vapor makes them appear white and puff out like smoke rings, Mr. Behnke explained.
The composition of these gas rings is about 80% water vapor, and the remaining 20% is mainly sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. According to Mr. Behnke, water vapor condenses in the cooler air, giving the rings a white, smoky appearance.
According to Mr. Behnke, these halos are not a particularly rare phenomenon. Etna, he said, is “the volcano with the most steam rings on the planet.”
