Mt. Etna Eruption Plume

Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. In late October of last year, however, earthquakes triggered a particularly vigorous outburst from this well known volcano on the Italian island of Sicily. Local schools were closed and air-traffic re-routed as hot lava poured out and ash spewed out and settled as far away as Libya . Pictured above was the Mt. Etna ash plume as it appeared to astronauts on the International Space Station . The view looks toward the southeast. Light colored smoke is due to forest fires caused by lava on the volcano 's north face.