When Chile’s Calbuco volcano roared to life in April 2015, it exploded with little warning. The ash-rich plume rose more than 14 miles into the atmosphere, generating a spectacular storm that produced thousands of lightning flashes. Although the tallest and most powerful volcanic explosions tend to produce the most dazzling electrical displays, not all volcanic eruptions trigger lightning.
Scientists are just beginning to understand many of the complex processes that determine which ones do. An eruption’s intensity and access to water both play a vital role. Research from recent eruptions in Alaska and Indonesia have clarified how ice can generate lightning, though the precise proportion of ice or ash needed for lightning is unclear. Researchers continue to monitor major eruptions for answers.
How Volcanos Eruptions Spark Lighting:
1.Magma Breaks-up
As magma rises toward the volcano’s surface, its water rapidly turns to vapour, which shatters the molten rock into tiny particles. This creates charged particles during the earliest stage of an eruption.
Near the volcanic vent, tiny electrical discharges emit a signal known as continual radio frequency, an early sign of a volcanic eruption.
2.Particles Collide
As magma rises toward the volcano’s surface, its water rapidly turns to vapour, which shatters the molten rock into tiny particles. This creates charged particles during the earliest stage of an eruption.
Collisions between rock particles, a process known as tribocharging, occur when particles scrape or bounce off each other.
3.Charges Separate
Positively charged particles begin to separate from negatively charged particles within the plume. This results in a charge imbalance that builds up an electric field strong enough to trigger flashes of lightning.
Particles of different sizes and charges travel at varying speeds throughout the entire plume.
4.Water Freezes
If a plume rises high enough in the atmosphere, ice will form. Water-rich plumes tend to produce more ice crystals. When ice, hail, and supercooled liquid droplets collide, lightning rates skyrocket.
Several miles above this point, water in the plume starts to freeze; this can activate especially intense flashes thus creating lighting-rich blast.
Krish Charlie...✒️
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