Image 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 early January.
Magma bubbles so hot they
glow shoot away as liquid rock
bursts through the Earth’s surface from below. The
above 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. One
hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas. Other
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.