Tongan Eruption Unleashes Most Intense Lightning Burst Ever
- 9 months ago
The Tongan volcano eruption produced the most intense burst of lightning ever recorded with 43 flashes per second.
When the Hunga volcano blew its top in January last year it was the largest eruption since Krakatoa in 1883.
Now scientists studying its plume have detected 2,615 flashes of lightning a minute at its height, lasting five minutes.
That's more than two and a half times the previous record of 993 detected in a storm over the US in 1999.
Also detected were donut-shaped rings of lightning, 174 miles in diameter, the largest ever seen, according to the study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Overall there were nearly 200,000 lightning flashes in the volcanic plume throughout the eruption which lasted at least 11 hours, several hours longer than previously known.
When the Hunga volcano blew its top in January last year it was the largest eruption since Krakatoa in 1883.
Now scientists studying its plume have detected 2,615 flashes of lightning a minute at its height, lasting five minutes.
That's more than two and a half times the previous record of 993 detected in a storm over the US in 1999.
Also detected were donut-shaped rings of lightning, 174 miles in diameter, the largest ever seen, according to the study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Overall there were nearly 200,000 lightning flashes in the volcanic plume throughout the eruption which lasted at least 11 hours, several hours longer than previously known.