• Question: What causes thunder?

    Asked by beccawilko to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Angus Ferraro

      Angus Ferraro answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      Thunder is caused directly by lightning! Lightning bolts super-heat the air around them to tens of thousands of degrees. Warm air has a lower pressure, which creates a big shockwave in the air. Sounds are just waves travelling through the air, and the waves lightning produces are so massive they produce a huge RUMBLE of thunder!

      Lightning is caused by the big turbulent towers of vertical motion in thunderstorms. This causes electric charges to build up, and when the difference in charge gets big enough of a bolt of electricity sparks off!

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      I can only add that there is a type of lightning and thumder that is generated during violent volcanic eruptions. You can see a cool picture here
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8288283/Volcanic-lightning-pictured-as-Mount-Shinmoedake-volcano-in-Japan-erupts.html?image=1

      It happens because there is a lot of electric charges generated during an eruption and lightning happens because the charges are being balanced. Much like Angus describes below. What scientist don’t fully understand is where in the eruption the charges come from, inside the rocks, or is it from little dropplets of water in the ash?

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      great answers from Angus and Laura!

Comments