{"id":550940,"date":"2026-03-21T10:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550940\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T10:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:05:14","slug":"physicists-say-theyve-cracked-the-mystery-of-volcanic-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550940\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicists Say They’ve Cracked the Mystery of Volcanic Lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volcanic lightning looks surreal: an arc of light rises from the volcanic crater, stretching out into the murky skies. Although scientists knew what caused such frightening yet beautiful phenomena, some of the smaller details remained unexplained\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

In a recent Nature<\/a> paper, physicists attribute a molecular \u201cfilm\u201d of carbon to phenomena like volcanic lightning. Theoretically speaking, volcanic ash\u2014a gassy lump of colliding silicon dioxide particles\u2014shouldn\u2019t experience triboelectric effects, or the exchange of electrical charge, since they\u2019re all the same type of particle. But in nature, they do charge up in the same way that hair sticks to a balloon after vigorous rubbing. According to the new study, a carbon-rich \u201ccocktail of molecular and atomic species\u201d in the atmosphere drives this same-species electrification.<\/p>\n

Tracking a volcanic flash <\/p>\n

Triboelectric effects represent just one of several known causes of volcanic lightning, which Oregon State<\/a> University says has been witnessed and studied for over 200 years.\u00a0For instance, in 2016 researchers discovered<\/a> that ice plays a role in some instances of volcanic lightning. This mechanism mirrors that of normal thunderclouds<\/a>\u00a0in that the interactions between high-living ice crystals and the ash clouds generate electrification.<\/p>\n

That ice-based mechanism could appear in tandem with triboelectric effects, according to National Geographic<\/a>. In the earliest stages of a volcanic eruption, the watery part of magma quickly vaporizes and becomes charged as it meets the air. These excited particles scatter into the air, eventually colliding and generating triboelectric effects. When the ash plume rises high enough to freeze, that makes lightning rates \u201cskyrocket,\u201d explained National Geographic.<\/p>\n

Carbon never dies <\/p>\n

For the study, the researchers sought to reproduce the molecular processes at play inside volcanic eruptions. They created a small sound chamber, using sound waves to suspend small spheres of silicon dioxide onto a plate made of the same material. Then they bounced the spheres off the plate and measured whether it became electrified.<\/p>\n

\"ExperimentalA photograph of the experimental setup. \u00a9 Grosjean et al., 2026 <\/p>\n

They repeated the same experiment while slightly adjusting each run to account for factors such as height or humidity. The team also tried washing up the particle and letting it sit for some time, then checking to see how much carbon material the particle had collected just by existing in some non-vacuum environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that this effect [of the carbon-based molecules] overcomes everything else,\u201d Galien Grosjean, the study\u2019s lead author and a physicist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain, told New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authors\u2019 findings show that triboelectric charging is fundamentally an interfacial phenomenon, shaped by chemical as well as mechanical factors,\u201d Simone Ciampi, a researcher at Curtin University in Australia who wasn\u2019t involved in the new study, wrote in an accompanying News & Views<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back from volcanoes to labs <\/p>\n

The challenge of any study on extreme phenomena is that it\u2019s nearly impossible to directly investigate the system. That is, the team isn\u2019t likely going to be flying inside a volcanic ash cloud to check its work. Still, the study offers a fascinating perspective into unexpected things at play for a force as commonly seen as friction. For one, it could complicate the work of material scientists, whose experiments often require pristine surfaces to deter the influence of unwanted forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople know surfaces have a lot of crap on them,\u201d Daniel Lacks, a chemical engineer at Case Western Reserve University, told New Scientist. \u201cBut I\u2019ve never seen that come up in triboelectric charging.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the findings could inform how researchers control and model triboelectric charging to their liking, Ciampi said. In that case, that would mean advances in \u201ctechnologies such as laser printing, mineral processing, and industrial exhaust treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volcanic lightning looks surreal: an arc of light rises from the volcanic crater, stretching out into the murky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,43438,61,75651],"class_list":["post-550940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-material-science","tag-technology","tag-volcanic-eruptions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}