One of world’s most active volcanoes blew its top this week in a terrifying, but beautiful display

by Molly Solana:

In a statement to ABC News, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), a research institute in Italy, said that fire and lightning brighten up the sky over Sicily on Thursday, after Mount Etna’s Voragine crater erupted for the first time in couple of years.

Volcanic lightning was on display over the huge cloud of smoke and fire rising from the volcano and in the dark sky.

The INGV said the activity in the crater started on Thursday with Strombolian eruptions, which were short-lived, explosive lava outbursts, and intensified yesterday. The volcano’s volcano’s explosions have reached a new peak as lava, magma, ash and gas elevated to at least 7 kilometers over the volcano summit with existing winds that are weak as per the INGV. Previously this year, the phenomenon was also captured in Chile.

According to INGV’s website, Mount Etna is Europe’s biggest volcano and among the most active volcanoes worldwide. Once considered as nonthreatening to the area’s 900,000 residents due to its steady lava flow, researchers have discovered that Mount Etna can give rise to very explosive activities.

The formation of the Voragine crater took place inside of the central crater in 1945 and is one of the 3 other craters in the volcano, including Bocca Nuova, the crater of the Northeast and the crater of the Southeast, which as per the INGV has always been the most active one.

wtexas.com