Volcanic Lightning
First volcanic lightning generated in our lab.
Video1
Video2
Our research group achieved for the first time the experimental generation of volcanic lightning.
Experiments were conducted at the magma fragmentation experimental facilities in the Department of Earth and Environment at LMU.
The videos show the generation of electrical discharges by self-charging of volcanic ash in a turbulent particle-laden jet. Different exposure time of the high-speed videos, at the same experimental conditions, reveal different aspects of the discharges.
The research is published open access on Geology (download the paper of Cimarelli et al. here) and has been reported by several journals and magazines including Nature, National Geographic, Live Science, EOS Wetenschap, New Scientist and others.