On November 27, the volcano Mauna Loa on Hawaii’s Big Island erupted for the first time in 38 years, spewing out lava and ashes.

On the night of the eruption the sky was bathed in a red glow from the lava but high above that glowed a heavenly pillar of light, like some sort of divine sign. This was a light pillar, more often seen in polar regions and other intensely cold places. Ice crystals floating in the atmosphere had caught the glowing red light from the volcano and created a vertical beam of light, but where the ice crystals came from was less certain.

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