The violent 2009 eruption of the Mount Redoubt volcano in southern Alaska gave scientists a rare chance to study volcanic lightning, which can pose a threat to air traffic near volcanic hotspots around the world. Mount Redoubt, for example, is on one of the busiest cargo and passenger airplane routes in the world.
Volcanic lightning is difficult to study due to the often remote location of volcanoes and because many eruptions can be hard to predict. However, scientists were able to set up sensors and instruments ahead of time near Redoubt in 2009 because of increased seismic activity detected before the main eruptions.
The study was led by Sonja Behnke and other scientists from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, located in Socorro, N.M. It was detailed in this week's issue of EOS, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
INTERACTIVE: The facts behind lightning's flash
Benkhe and her colleagues discovered that the explosions produced powerful volcanic lightning storms, the largest of which were close to the intensity of the massive supercell thunderstorms that often blast the U.S. Midwest and Great Plains. They also found that the lightning storms lasted from 20 to 70 minutes and produced thousands of lightning flashes.
The team reported that sensors of the Redoubt study recorded the entire eruption sequence and provided excellent two-dimensional observations of the lightning activity, and also substantially extended the body of knowledge concerning volcanic lightning.
Visit Science Fair for your daily dose of scientific news, from dinosaurs to distant galaxies. Science Fair is written by science reporters Dan Vergano and Elizabeth Weise and weather reporter Doyle Rice. Their subjects are often controversial -- and always fascinating -- be they stem-cell research, slime mold, or underground slush on Mars. More about the team