Volcanic Lightning

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.

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Previous Volcanic Lightning

• The earliest was made by Pliny the Younger who described it during Mount Vesuvius eruption in Italy in 79 AD. 
• Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri also recorded this phenomenon between 1858 and 1872.

Source: TH