Light Pillar over Erupting Etna

Light Pillar over Erupting Etna

Image Credit & Copyright:
Davide Caliò

Explanation:
Can a lava flow extend into the sky?

No, but light from the lava flow can.

One effect is something quite unusual — a volcanic
light pillar.

More typically, light pillars are caused by
sunlight and so appear as a bright column that
extends upward above a rising or setting
Sun.

Alternatively, other light pillars —
some
quite
colorful — have been recorded above street and house lights.

This light pillar, though, was illuminated by the
red light emitted by the glowing magma of an
erupting volcano.

The volcano is
Italy‘s
Mount Etna, and the
featured image
was captured with a single shot
during an early morning in mid-February.

Freezing temperatures above the volcano’s
lava flow created
ice-crystals
either in the air above the volcano
or in condensed water vapor expelled by
Mount Etna.

These ice crystals — mostly
flat toward the ground but fluttering —
then reflected away light from the
volcano’s caldera.