wunder beta📘 At night, the plume can become its own storm
Stand far from an erupting cone after sunset and watch the plume before you look for lava. A dark column can pulse with brief blue-white flashes, sometimes close to the vent and sometimes high in the cloud. The volcano has not summoned an o
What you’ll learn
- The first flashRecognize volcanic lightning as an electrical discharge produced by charge separation in an eruptive plume.Explosive eruptions supply hot gas, fragmented rock, turbulence, and sometimes water—the ingredients for an electrically active plume.
- A dirty thunderstormExplain how ash charging and ice charging can operate in different zones of one plume.Near-vent rock collisions can charge hot ash, while a high, cold, wet plume can add thunderstorm-like ice processes.
- Reading the flashesUse lightning timing and detection as evidence in volcanic monitoring without treating it as a complete forecast.Lightning networks, satellites, radar, acoustics, and models turn flashes into clues about plume height, ash production, and movement.
- What the flash cannot tell youDistinguish what volcanic lightning demonstrates from what it cannot predict.A flash confirms electrification and may confirm an ash-producing burst, but hazard decisions require many independent measurements.
Questions this course answers
Why can lightning begin near a volcanic vent before ice forms?
Near-vent charging can involve freshly fragmented silicate particles, so the plume need not already contain ice.
What changes when a plume rises into a cold, wet mixed-phase region?
Collisions among ice, liquid water, and ash can separate charge in a way that resembles ordinary thunderstorms.
Why is lightning useful to volcano monitors?
Lightning provides a fast electrical signal that can be combined with seismic, satellite, acoustic, and visual data.
Why is “ash charging versus ice charging” too simple?
Hot silicate collisions may dominate near the vent while ice processes become important higher in a cooling plume.
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