Light Pillar over Erupting Etna

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 .