Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day belongs on a metal album cover
February 10th, 2010
Yeah, that's lightning. On an exploding volcano. It's enough to make me want to bring back the original umlaut in "Körth".
Where's the lightning coming from? APoD says:
Why lightning occurs even in common thunderstorms remains a topic of research, and the cause of volcanic lightning is even less clear. Surely, lightning bolts help quench areas of opposite but separated electric charges. One hypothesis holds that catapulting magma bubbles or volcanic ash are themselves electrically charged, and by their motion create these separated areas. Other volcanic lightning episodes may be facilitated by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust.
