Volcanic lightning is beautiful and awe-inspiring, but what is it? Volcanic lightning is lightning produced in the volcanic plume( the gas and ash released during an eruption) during an explosion. To pinpoint the cause of such a phenomenon, we must look at the physics of how normal lightning occurs, and then look at how lightning forms in the inside of a volcano. Once there is an understanding of how both lightning forms occur, we can compare the two and see the similarities within formation. Lightning is much like rubbing your socks across the carpet and then touching a door nob. By rubbing your sock along the floor, you increase the electrons and cause an imbalance of positive and negative charges. When you touch the positively charged …show more content…
Normal lightning starts out as unmoving static inside of a cloud. In like manner, particles in the magma chamber(the stores of molten rock underneath a volcano) of a volcano are closely compact, and so movement is minimal. The wind torrents inside of a cloud carry frozen(more densely compacted particles) to the bottom of the cloud, and the updrafts carry the liquid condensation( less densely compacted particles) to the top of the cloud. The rubbing of these particles create friction. As the positively charged particles move to the top of the cloud, the negative particles move to the bottom, creating a charge separation. Much like in a cloud; inside of a volcano, as it erupts, the compact particles from the magma chamber rub against the loose particles inside of the vent, creating friction. The positive particles rise to the airy vent and the negatively charged particles rise to the vent and separate (due to increased space), creating charge separation. Inside of a cloud, charge separation becomes too great, and the negative particles and positive particles attempt to connect, creating lightning. As the negative and positive particles attempt to connect in the plume of a volcano, they create lightning. This is why "a volcano that lacks a thick volcanic plume, usually lacks volcanic lightning" (National Geographic). there are less particles that have built up a charge and are trying to