Volcanic Lightning Latest News
Volcanoes are incredible but highly dangerous natural phenomena and they also have the power to create lightning.
About Volcanic Lightning
- It is a mysterious and powerful phenomenon that occurs during volcanic eruptions rather than thunderstorms.
- It is in the form of a powerful barrage of lightning which occurs at the early stages of a volcanic eruption.
- Cause: The main cause is the collision between ash particles within the volcanic plume.
- The collision and rubbing of these particles together lead to the generation of static electricity, which, in turn, builds up charges and creates flashes of lightning.
- This type of lightning can be found in two places
- At the dense ash clouds located closer to the ground.
- Higher up in the eruption plume where ice particles form (from water vapourised from the magma) and collide, building electric charges and creating lightning visible strikes at higher levels.
- The water content found in volcanic plumes is higher than that in thunderstorms.
Previous Volcanic Lightning
- The earliest was made by Pliny the Younger who described it during Mount Vesuvius eruption in Italy in 79 AD.Â
- Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri also recorded this phenomenon between 1858 and 1872.
Source: TH
Volcanic Lightning FAQs
Q1: What is volcanic lightning?
Ans: A phenomenon that occurs during volcanic eruptions.
Q2: Where does volcanic lightning typically occur?
Ans: In the volcanic plume
