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Lightning

29 March 2013
Electromagnetism

At Hossein Turner's place, http://hozturner.blogspot.co.uk/feeds/posts/default … a link to a video of electrictiy in the sky is at www.circuitsinourskies.com/index.html

Over at http://io9.com/volcanic-lightning-how-does-it-work-459806533?utm … lightning from volcanoes, with lots of pictures – see also www.mrietze.com/web13/japan13.htm where German photographer Martin Rietze took the picture at Sakurajima volcano in Japan. Lightning activity is is highest during the intitial stages of an eruption – and there is a particularly nice image of lightning during Iceland's Surtsey eruption in 1963. Researchers think electrical activity is caused by the ejection from the volcano into the atmosphere of material carrying a large positive charge. As the charged ejecta makes its way skywards it meets regions of opposite but separated electric charge takes shape. A lightning bolt is nature's way of balancing the charge distribution – but there are problems with this idea. Read the article.

See also http://geology.com/articles/volcanic-lightning/

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