A dirty thunderstorm is a phenomenon in which lightning occurs in
Answers
Answer:
“The term 'dirty thunderstorm' means lightning in an eruption cloud from a volcano,” explains the German film-maker, who has been travelling to active volcanoes for almost 20 years
Answer:
So what is volcanic lightning and a “dirty thunderstorm”? It’s a rare occurrence that scientists don’t fully understand. In a normal thunderstorm, rain clouds containing ice crystals have positive and negative charges, and when the two charges collide, a giant spark ignites within the cloud – this is what we see as lightning and hear as thunder. Scientists believe that volcanic ash particles are themselves electrically charged, and their projection into the air with such force from the eruption causes them to collide, and as a result, electrical discharges occur.
According to Geology.com, “what is mostly agreed upon is that the process starts when particles separate, either after a collision or when a larger particle breaks in two. Then some difference in the aerodynamics of these particles causes the positively charged particles to be systematically separated from the negatively charged particles. Lightning is the electrical flow that results when this charge separation becomes too great for air to resist the flow of electricity.”