Astronaut tweets photos of ‘smoking’ Mount Etna from space

Chandigarh, February 12

German astronaut Matthias Maurer tweeted a photo of Mount Etna from the International Space Station on Saturday.

Maurer is currently on the ISS, and his shots of earth are stunning.

On Saturday, his tweet said: “Not a very clean shot since there is way too much humidity in Europe’s air at the moment but @astro_luca’s home volcano #Etna is clearly smoking (and spitting lava as I learnt from the news)”.

Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, erupted in spectacular fashion late on Thursday.

The eruption centred on the volcano’s southeastern crater, at a height of around 2,900 metres, sent ash and plumes of smoke 8 km into the sky, Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology said.

There were no reports of any injuries.

The 3,330 metre high volcano can burst into spectacular action several times a year, spewing lava and ash high over the Mediterranean island of Sicily. The last major eruption was in 1992.

—   With Reuters