الخميس، 31 أكتوبر 2013

Global lightning strikes. And lodestones.


An interesting distribution, with some curiously sharp demarcations.

And this interesting tidbit, from the source Wikipedia page:
The intense currents of a lightning discharge create a fleeting but very strong magnetic field. Where the lightning current path passes through rock, soil, or metal these materials can become permanently magnetized. This effect is known as lightning-induced remanent magnetism, or LIRM. These currents follow the least resistive path, often horizontally near the surface but sometimes vertically, where faults, ore bodies, or ground water offers a less resistive path. One theory suggests that lodestones, natural magnets encountered in ancient times, were created in this manner.

ليست هناك تعليقات:

إرسال تعليق