Important Takeaways:

• Watch: Mount Etna puffs giant smoke rings in ‘extraordinary’ phenomenon
• Mount Etna is one of a handful of volcanoes around the world that produces the rings, and does so prolifically, but the latest emissions are exceptional, scientists say.
• “No volcano on earth produces so many rings of steam as Etna. We have known this for quite some time. But now it is beating all previous records,” said Boris Behncke, a volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology of Catania. He has been studying the volcano and living close to it for the past 25 years.
• He said that on late Tuesday a small vent opened on the north-east edge of the south-east crater, which had emitted puffs of incandescent gas.
• The following morning, it became clear that these puffs were creating “an impressive quantity” of vortex rings, he said.
• Experts say the unusual rings are harmless and aren’t necessarily a prelude to an imminent eruption.

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