Study Reveals What Causes Volcanic Lightning
- 8 years ago
Volcanic lightning has long been a mystery to scientists, but a new study by researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich provides insight into the phenomenon.
Volcanic lightning has long been a mystery to scientists, but a new study by researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich provides insight into the phenomenon.
Lightning typically occurs in the atmosphere when negatively charged particles under the cloud answer the call of attraction and move towards their positively charged counterparts on the ground, resulting in a sizable spark.
However, as a recent Gizmodo article explains, when lightning occurs around a volcano, it tends to form “much closer to the ground within erupting volcanic plumes, and doesn’t necessarily propagate downwards.”
For the research, the team used a combination of high-tech recording and measuring devices to analyze Japan’s extremely active Sakurajima Volcano.
Based on the footage, they observed the lightning going off towards the bottom of the plume, within several hundred feet above the crater rim.
They also determined that the electric charge appears to originate from ash particles colliding due to jets of high pressure expelled by the volcano, notes the Daily Mail.
Because the findings indicate a correlation between the rate of lightning bursts and the amount of the ash expelled, researchers hope the former measure can be used to provide earlier air quality alerts to nearby residents, according to Gizmodo.
Volcanic lightning has long been a mystery to scientists, but a new study by researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich provides insight into the phenomenon.
Lightning typically occurs in the atmosphere when negatively charged particles under the cloud answer the call of attraction and move towards their positively charged counterparts on the ground, resulting in a sizable spark.
However, as a recent Gizmodo article explains, when lightning occurs around a volcano, it tends to form “much closer to the ground within erupting volcanic plumes, and doesn’t necessarily propagate downwards.”
For the research, the team used a combination of high-tech recording and measuring devices to analyze Japan’s extremely active Sakurajima Volcano.
Based on the footage, they observed the lightning going off towards the bottom of the plume, within several hundred feet above the crater rim.
They also determined that the electric charge appears to originate from ash particles colliding due to jets of high pressure expelled by the volcano, notes the Daily Mail.
Because the findings indicate a correlation between the rate of lightning bursts and the amount of the ash expelled, researchers hope the former measure can be used to provide earlier air quality alerts to nearby residents, according to Gizmodo.