Volcano tornado

Volcanados?

These volcanic water spouts spun off Kilauea volcano's eruption cloud during a 2008 blast. More than just a pillar of smoke, eruption clouds are, themselves, cyclonic, spinning around a vertical axis and mimicking some behavior patterns usually seen in storm cells, including the ability to give birth to smaller cyclones, water spouts and dust devils.

This photo was taken by Stephen & Donna O'Meara and is part of the Extreme Exposures exhibit running at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, starting October 23.

Via Bad Astronomy

Fire tornado photos

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Anonymous

Well, that should answer Eminem’s question.
Antinous / Moderator

Wow. What abominations do you have to commit to get God to send one of those after you?
- Beryllium
  
  I think that one is classified under “Eating Red Meat on a Friday”
caseyd

I was there a couple of weeks ago.

The steam cloud coils like a bucket of earthworms. Sometimes it elbows down to the surface and back up. The little volcanados spin slowly off.

it’s really beautiful.
MrsBug

I sense a bad SyFy movie coming up!!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Only if the volcanadoes were sucking up mutant piranhas.
  - MrsBug
    
    No piranhas, but it does have a MegaShark! And an octopus. Oh, and Debbie Gibson.
bigdanfoley

No no no! This is a “Torcano!”
mst3kmoxie

Pat Robertson said Volcanados are God’s way of saying how much he hates gays.
softyelectric

Reminds me of sort of the opposite of Kurt Vonnegut’s solid water tornadoes in Cat’s Cradle.
Anonymous

What does it mean?
Anonymous

Volcanados! From the people who brought you Sharktopus!
planettom

Over the last month or two I’ve seen several videos on the Interwebs of fire tornadoes. I look forward to the lava tornado.
Anonymous

That’s like a meteorological bearshark!
TFox

I think Stephen O’Meara is also famous in amateur astronomy circles. Among other feats, he was the first to see Halley’s comet by eye when it returned in 1985, when it was still dimmer than 19th magnitude. Amazing what he can do with an excellent scope, on top of a mountain in Hawaii, while breathing bottled oxygen.
oasisob1

Double Volcanado. Full on!
Phikus

Volcanados! Oh Noes!
Pipenta

Pure, unadulterated AWESOMENESS!!!
Teller

Signs of The Rupture.