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Credit & Copyright: Martin Rietze
(Alien Landscapes on Planet Earth)
Explanation:
Why does a volcanic eruption sometimes create lightning?
Pictured above, the
Sakurajima volcano
in southern Japan
was caught erupting in 2013 January.
Magma bubbles so hot they
glowed shot away as liquid rock
burst
through the Earth's surface from below.
The featured image
is particularly notable, however, for the
lightning bolts caught near the
volcano's summit.
Why lightning
occurs even in common thunderstorms remains a topic of research, and the cause of
volcanic lightning
is even less clear.
Surely,
lightning bolts
help quench areas of opposite but separated electric charges.
Volcanic lightning episodes may be facilitated by
charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust.
Lightning is usually occurring
somewhere on Earth,
typically over 40 times each second.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: volcano
Publications with words: volcano
See also: