Why is there so much lightning in the Taal volcanic eruption?

After a 40-year "deep sleep", the mountain suddenly sprayed a giant column of dust and smoke along with beams of light that illuminated the sky on January 12.

Taal volcano is located about 70 km south of Manila. Only after that day the mountain began to spray red lava. Taal is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines. More than 8,000 people have been displaced and the current 6,000 are safely outside the danger zone.

Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the past five centuries, most recently in 1977. In 1911 an eruption killed 1,500 people and the eruption in 1754 lasted for months.

Huge column of ash in the Taal volcano eruption on January 12.(Photo: CNN).

Sonja Behnke, a scientist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) thinks that volcanic lightning is an interesting natural phenomenon. He has also repeatedly observed volcanic lightning in Iceland and Japan.

So volcanic clay is formed like? It can be seen that volcanic ash first needs an electric charge. When a volcano erupts (different from the lava eruption), it shoots molten rocks (magma) into the air forming volcanic ash columns. In these ashes, billions of magma particles begin to collide and rub together to produce charged particles. The process is similar to when rubbing socks on carpets will create electricity.

" Volcanic lightning and lightning in storm clouds are all formed by collisions of particles . Instead of ice particles colliding in storm clouds, volcanic lightning is created by magma particles," Adam Varble, home storm research at the National Northwest Pacific Laboratory said.

Then, for lightning strikes, charged magma particles need to be separated into different areas in the volcanic ash column. In this chaotic beam, different sized particles will fall at different speeds creating different charged particles. Basically, there is a separate positive and negative charge.

When there are two oppositely charged particle regions, the space in the middle becomes an electromagnetic field that allows electricity to travel through the air. This is how rays or clusters of lightning appear in volcanic ash or storm clouds.

A lot of lightning appears in the Taal volcanic ash column.(Photo: Inquirer).

Lightning bolts in volcanic ash or storm clouds all carry billions of volts. Lightning is very much present in the ashes of the Taal volcanic eruption as particles shoot up high in the air, then freeze and accumulate water. This means that the charged particles are both magma and ice, causing clusters of lightning to appear in the Taal volcanic ash column.

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