Satellite image showing the concentric cloud rings created by La Palma's erupting volcano. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/MODIS/Aqua satellite)
New satellite images reveal a striking pattern of concentric clouds rings that resemble a bull's eye. It was created by the continuing eruption of La Palma volcano in Spain's Canary Islands.
Live Science reported that the volcano La Cumbre Vieja, which means "The Old Summit" (in Spanish), has been erupting for the first time since Sept. 19, which is more than 50 years ago. Large lava flows visible from space, which destroyed farmland, roads, and homes in the southwest part of the island, forced thousands of residents to flee the area.
Satellite images taken Oct. 1 by NASA's Aqua satellite shows a unique bull's eye-shaped cloud formation high above La Palma. According to NASA's Earth Observatory, this circular pattern was created by the volcanic eruption plume, which is a mixture of water vapor, smoke and other volcanic gases.
Related: Five of the most active volcanoes in the world
A volcano's eruption plume usually rises directly into the stratosphere, the second layer of atmosphere. It extends from 4 to 12 miles (6 or 19 kilometers) above the Earth's surface to 31 to 50 km, creating a towering column clouded with ash. Because hot air and gases rise higher than colder gases and the atmospheric temperature decreases with altitude it creates an invisible elevator for the plume to ride up.
A temperature inversion, which is a rare phenomenon, meant that the temporary elevated layer hot air acting as a lid trapped the volcano's plume within the troposphere, the first layer above Earth's surface at an elevation of 3.3 miles (5.3km). According to the Earth Observatory, this lidforced the plume horizontally. Because of natural ebbs, flows and intensity of volcanic activity that created concentric rings from the trapped plume, this created a pulse in the volcano's emissions.
The Izaa Atmospheric Research Center based in Tenerife (another Canary Island) also captured this unique process on camera. You can see it in a stunning time-lapse video that was shared on Twitter.
According to the National Weather Service, this concentric cloud formation is called a gravity wave. The formation is not related to gravity, and it is independent from gravitational waves.
Although experts originally thought that the eruption would only last a few days at most, La Cumbre Vieja continues releasing lava and gases.
Original publication on Live Science
