Coincidence? 109,000 Lightnings Strike over New Zealand One Day Before White Island Deadly Volcanic Eruption – 300,000 Discharges on the Same Day

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In the 24 hours leading up to 7 a.m., December 7, 2019, MetService recorded 109,000 lightning strikes over New Zealand (mostly over South Island and Westland) and surrounding waters. 300,000 bolts on December 8, 2019 and more than 857,000 in 72 hours.

That’s a new record for New Zealand… And could this strong electric event have something to do with the deadly eruption of White Island on New Zealand’s South Island?

More than 109,000 lightnings hit before deadly White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand
More than 109,000 lightnings hit before deadly White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand. Picture: Small eruption of Mount Rinjani, with volcanic lightning by Oliver Spalt / CC BY 2.0 via Wikipedia

In the 24 hours leading up to 7am on December 7, 2019, 109,000 lightning strikes were recorded over New Zealand and its surrounding waters, with 18,000 over the land.

Previously the records had only seen 44,000 strikes over both land and sea. That’s an amazing 65,000 more!

What Causes Volcanic Eruptions?

About 1 day after, on December 8, 2019, White Island volcano, situated on New Zealand’s South island, erupted, killing at least 5 people.

There are different causes for a volcano to erupt.

All fundamentally come down to a pressure change within the volcano which ejects the magma from its chamber beneath the volcano.

  • Tectonic Movement

The most common type of eruption is caused by the movement of tectonic plates.

When one is pushed under the other the magma, sediment and seawater is forced into the chamber which eventually overflows and the volcano erupts spewing lava into the sky.

This kind of eruption produces sticky, thick lava at temperatures from 800 to 1,000°C.

  • Tectonic Plates Movement

The second type of eruption caused by tectonic plates is when the plates move away from each other allowing magma to rise and fill the the gap.

Such events can cause a gentle explosion of thin lava of temperatures between 800 to 1,200°C.

  • Decreasing Temperatures

Decreasing temperatures can cause old magma to crystallise and sink to the bottom of the chamber and this movement can force fresh liquid magma up and out – similar to dropping a brick in a bucket of water.

  • Decrease External Pressure

Finally a decrease in external pressure can trigger an eruption as it may minimize the volcano’s ability to hold back by increasing the pressures inside the magma chamber.

This kind of eruption can be caused by natural events such as strong thunderstorms, hurricanes, typhoons, which decrease rock density as well as snow melting – one cause behind the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland.

White Island Eruption Linked to Thunderstorms?

Strong thunderstorms engulfed New Zealand and its South Island with more than 109,000 lightnings on Saturday:

On Sunday, more than 300,000 lightnings:

In overall, more than 857,000 lightning bolts hit New Zealand in less than 72 hours (midnight Friday):

The lightnings may have not played a big role in triggering the deadly White Island volcanic eruption.

But the magma coming up to the surface may have changed the electrical field of the entire area, causing the storms and lightning strikes to appear.

And those powerful and extremelly low-pressure thunderstorms that swept across the region, may have changed the pressure inside the volcano magma chamber and thus initiate the eruption. What do you think about this theory?

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9 Comments

  1. Lightening strikes are all in the South Island & White Island is situated 20ish km off from a place called Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty in the North Island no where near the lightening strikes & where we live about an hours drive from Whakatane in Te Puke.

  2. The lightning intensity in NZ may have been aggravated [to become more intense] by the smoke coming from Australia. I feel that the volcanic eruption was a coincidence with the the lightning activity. The volcano was showing activity in the weeks prior to the eruption, which has been a tragedy for may folks. Coincidence is not always association. Volcanoes can create their own lightning. If a violent lightning storm was directly above the volcano, then maybe there could be some trigger for volcanic activity, but this didn’t happen with White Island’s tragic eruption.

      • That could be, Tommy. There have been rumors of HAARP Directed Energy Weapons that created the wildfires in northern and southern California – both 2 summers ago and this past summer. That’s certainly a possibility, but you won’t find that in the MSM.

  3. Maybe I missed something, but when I drilled down in Google Earth White Island that was obviously a volcano was 30 miles off the coast of a huge bay off the north east part of the north island. What am I missing?

    • Not a lot sunshine… the writer of the (?)article… a hell of a lot.

      Typical of (so called) reporters who can’t spell properly, don’t understand grammar, and far too often can’t even string coherent sentences together.

      As we say here in New Zealand… Wunch of Bankers

  4. “The lightnings may have not played a big role in triggering the deadly White Island volcanic eruption.

    But those powerful and extremelly low-pressure thunderstorms that swept across the region, may have changed the pressure inside the volcano magma chamber and thus initiate the eruption. What do you think about this theory?”

    Umm…

    Well, I was thinking that the magma coming up to the surface did something to change the electrical field of the entire area, causing the storms and lightning strikes to appear.

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