Italy's Etna Unleashes a Short but Spectacular Eruption

Mount Etna erupts on December 3, 2015. Marco Restivo/Demotix/Corbis After what has been a quiet 2015, Etna saw one of its first paroxysms of the year. Over the last few weeks, the Voragina crater on Etna has been restless, with low level Strombolian activity that was mainly confined to the crater. However, last night, the Voragine crater unleashed a lava fountain that reached 1 kilometer (~3,200 feet) over the volcano with an accompanying ash plume that topped 3 kilometers (~9,800 feet). Even with all that intensity of eruption, the paroxysm was over in only 50 minutes. By this morning, only a thin, white plume was coming from Etna, although some of the ash plume was still visible to the east over the sea (see above).