Tuesday 4 October 2016

Lightning Strike

It looks as if a huge mole has ploughed a furrow across a hilltop near Sanna, stopping every now and then to grub around for subterranean food, but....

....the track is one of three radiating out from a gabbro outcrop, each running for some thirty metres.

Tracing the furrows back, Kilchoan Early Bird, who took these photographs, found they all led to....

....this rock which has been shattered as if struck by a massive sledgehammer.

The Early Bird has no doubt as to what this is - the site of a lightning strike.

Many thanks to Kilchoan Early Bird for photos and story.
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  1. Derryck Morton4 October 2016 at 13:14

    Yes, I would agree. The electric conductivity of the massive rock dome below the soil is low compared to the water held within the soil. I suspect, but cannot see in the photographs, that the scorched furrows are each at the bottom of shallow depressions where the water is gathered on its way downhill; the conductivity here being highest and electricity taking the easiest route. A good illustration as to why you should not lay on the ground in a thunderstorm but stand crouched with feet together - it lessens the voltage potential through your body.

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