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Underwater volcano triggered the most intense lightning ever recorded

The huge eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano generated more than 2,600 lightning flashes per minute.
Satellite video of Tonga's Hunga Volcano eruption.

An underwater volcano’s eruption in 2022 produced a record-breaking number of lightning flashes (blue dots). Credit: A. R. Van Eaton et al./Geophys. Res. Lett. (CC-BY)

Last year’s massive eruption of a volcano in Tonga produced the most extreme lightning ever recorded1.

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Nature 618, 889 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01943-9

References

  1. Van Eaton, A. R. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 50, e2022GL102341 (2023).

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