Big question here ---

THROUGH the ground (as in downward) -- or ALONG the ground (as in partial
contact with air drawn away from the initial "target").

In a vertical sense, lightning cannot penetrate more than a foot or two deep
into the earth's surface. This can be observed in "Fulgurites" which is a
form of instantaneous glass making when lightning strikes sand.

Remember, Lightning will always take the path of least resistance. The earth
is indeed both highly resistant and a very poor conductor below the
accumulated charge at the earth's surface during a thunderstorm. As a
result, lightning will disspate outwards along the earth's surface versus
downard. The same concept applies on water.



"Lacy" wrote in message
...
I have heard about this recently and I am wondering if lightning can travel
260 feet through the ground without some sort of conducting material? I
have never really even heard of something like this.I know how electricity
behaves according to ohms law, etc. and according to those Laws it isn't
possible due to the high resistance of the earth (at least not going into
the earth that far).

Besides, electrical item are "earth-grounded" in order to pass a lightning
surge safely to ground in order to dissipate its effects.

The little I know about lightning is the fact that it will strike the
tallest object around because it is closer to the cloud and the path of
least resistance ,like say, a tree. One theory that I have heard is that
lightning actually originates at the ground level and travel upward to the
cloud. a highly negative tree passed over by a highly positively charged
cloud. and the lightning jump from negative tree to positive cloud.

I really don't know that much about the physics of meteorology. So let me
have some opinions on this and let me know if I am in error.


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