The past few months have been quite ‘active’ for volcanoes in different parts of the Earth, literally. About 5 months ago, the Cumbre Vieja volcano in Spain exploded, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, but ended last month and became the owner of the title of the biggest eruption in 375 years.

A month ago, Wolf Volcano, the largest volcano of the Galapagos Islands, erupted; Again, a tsunami occurred with the explosion of the Hunga Tonga volcanic system in the South Pacific one month ago and thousands of barrels of oil leaked into the ocean. While the effects of these volcanic disasters are still continuing, a new volcanic eruption occurred late on Thursday, February 10th.

Etna Volcano erupted

Etna volcano in Italy, the highest volcano in Europe with an altitude of 3 thousand 300 meters, exploded. Volcanic lightning in the sky during the eruption of Mount Etna, known as one of the most active volcanoes in the world, drew attention.

In the statement made by Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology after the explosion, it was stated that the volcanic eruption took place in the southeast crater and the ash and smoke formed due to the explosion reached up to 8 kilometers. Fortunately, no life or property was lost in the explosion.

Volcanic lightning is very rare

Boris Behncke, who works as a volcanologist at the Institute, said that volcanic lightning that occurs during volcanic eruptions is observed in very violent eruptions or volcanic eruptions near the sea. expressed. Adding that volcanic lightning is a very rare natural phenomenon, Benchke noted that this event was last observed in 2015 and 2021.

On the other hand, why and how volcanic lightning occurs is still not fully understood. Although it is thought that volcanic lightning is caused by the friction of the charged particles in the ash cloud formed in the explosion, the reason is not yet known. Unfortunately, volcanic lightning could not be caught in the impressive videos from the eruption.

Here is the eruption of Mount Etna