Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Volcanic Lightning

I know I've mentioned before that I really like photos of volcanic lightning. This one is from the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), which I know I have also mentioned once or twice. Follow the link, and click the pic for glorious (truly) full size. As the blurb mentions, we don't have a very good understanding of what causes "normal" lightning, let alone volcanic lightning. But eruptions commonly have a lot of these electrical discharges, and I'm always a little surprised when knowledgeable meteorology people are surprised by such photos, and wonder if they're photoshopped. They're not. Below is maybe my favorite ever, from Chaiten's eruption last year. It's not nice to anger the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

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