News

Kim Genareau’s volcano lightning research in the news

Dr. Kim Genareau’s recent paper in Geology is highlighted in several news articles such as, Science,  Science News, KQED, and Science Daily. Her research describes how extreme heating of airborne ash by lightning can create tiny glass spheres as seen below.  Such spheres were documented in deposits from the recent eruption’s of Mount Redoubt in Alaska and Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.  This discovery provides a way to detect ancient volcanic lightning and indicates changes to the properties of ash movement.  This paper is especially timely considering the recent eruption in Chile with spectacular lightning.