lightning pix from volcano in Chile

[Jason Foster]

Is that for real?

I wonder what the lightning rate was on the multiple lightning image. There is so much lightning, but there is very little blur from a time exposure. I remember a Faidley shot once with multiple color CG's, and I believe it was explained that he used color filters to get the desired look.

I almost might think these were done with photoshop, but I don't know enough to say it's not possible. Still think the image is great...just wonder if it's natural.

BTW....my friends father was in Chile when this thing started. I belive he's OK, but haven't recieved a concrete answer yet.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I wonder what the lightning rate was on the multiple lightning image. There is so much lightning, but there is very little blur from a time exposure. I remember a Faidley shot once with multiple color CG's, and I believe it was explained that he used color filters to get the desired look.

I almost might think these were done with photoshop, but I don't know enough to say it's not possible. Still think the image is great...just wonder if it's natural.

BTW....my friends father was in Chile when this thing started. I belive he's OK, but haven't recieved a concrete answer yet.

I wondered too, but color change is just from how much and of what is filtering the light. I figured the odd green one is deeper in the ash. I also wondered about the non-blur issue too, but I think that can be answered as well. Only the big bright CG will really light up the whole plume. So the plume would look sharp. It's hard to really see the sharpness where there are all those tiny ones. Should be a little blurred under there but hard to tell, and those wouldn't be bright at all either, so maybe they wouldn't light up the plume much anyway. I sort of believe they aren't fake, though I didn't at first.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

In the article posted by Jim above, it mentioned that the rate on the Mt. St. Helens eruption averaged a stroke per second, and that the rate is typically high for eruptions. It said that even though lightning is a secondary risk to the eruption itself, there have been cases of fleeing people and animals who were struck and killed by the lightning.

So basically, if there's a volcanic eruption, you get it all ... ash blocking out the sun and making it impossible to breathe, lava, mudslides and lahars, atomic-style explosions, earthquakes, and deadly lightning. Sounds like fun -

 

[David Drufke]

The daily mail is well known for photoshoping the news. I'm going to assuming these are fake until proven otherwise.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

The daily mail is well known for photoshoping the news. I'm going to assuming these are fake until proven otherwise.

That original posts picture is on the National Geographic Website also: After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaitén volcano (pictured on May 3) is erupting with lava, ash—and lightning from National Geographic

Volcanic Lightning Sparked by "Dirty Thunderstorms," Study Finds

Lightning-like discharges are sometimes observed during volcanic eruptions, with no thunderstorm anywhere nearby. Hundreds or even thousands of feet in length, these bolts can flash to the ground or remain entirely within the ash cloud above the volcano. Here, lightning flashes during an eruption of Japan's Sakurajima Volcano in 1991. PBS

 

[David Drufke]

I'm glad these amazing pictures are real! National Geographic is a far more reliable source

For some fun Daily Mail photoshoping, check out:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/search/label/Daily Fail

 

[Chris White]

The original source is UPI Photo/Carlos Gutierrez. I have often been fascinated with electrical/lightning phenomena associated with volcanic eruptions and ash such as the Saint Elmo's Fire experienced by British Airways Flight 9 (1982) when all engines failed after they flew thru the undetectable ash produced by Mount Galunggung in Indonesia (more lightning/volcano shots). The flight crew and passengers all reported various forms of Saint Elmo's Fire, quite a story.

I did run into a couple of high resolution shots of these where some (what appears to be) internal lens reflections occurred from the brightest strikes that placed an inverted much lighter image of the brightest of strikes upside down and to the right of the actual very bright strike. I believe very highly they are legit.