Weird Places: The Endless Lightning at Lake Maracaibo
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- Опубликовано: 22 апр 2018
- During peak thunderstorm season, Lake Maracaibo has an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute hit its surface. But why?
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Sources:
www.bbc.com/earth/story/201508...
www.slate.com/articles/life/wo...
www.theguardian.com/world/201...
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1...
www.guinnessworldrecords.com/w...
www.nationalgeographic.com/en...
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
www.saber.ula.ve/bitstream/123...
www.weather.gov/jetstream/lig...
www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...
scied.ucar.edu/ozone-layer
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They should put a live feed camera near this lake to watch the lightning in real time
Venezuela barely has a functioning power grid and you want to setup a livestream?
It would probably take an hour before somebody stole the camera and even the power cables lol. Actually they would probably steal it while being installed lol
LOL nice - a faraday cage suite. Have you seen the Slow mo Guys vid, they had a guest on with just that!
Carlos Carreño
Actually the person being paid to install it will probably be the one to steal it.
That's communism for you
A lot of Pikachus inhabit the area.
Pika
*emolga
Or one Zapdos
@@myname3960ah yes, little known fact but the "pokemon 2000" movie is actually a documentary about the geography of venezuela 🤨
They could be also dead.
I wonder how cultures throughout the centuries interpreted this natural phenomenon, what lore it could have inspired.
Ya
God is Born
I thorally think the same way
It was used as a lighthouse from the 17th century but before then as the video said there isn't much information.
I'm a Venezuelan born in Maracaibo City... I went to sleep everyday with the blinking of the thunderstorm almost every night...
The Wayuu and Yukpa native tribes have some lore that have something to do with it... Some of them are big on fishing in the lake... They use the lightning literally like a guide and some legends say that those bolts of lights are dancing plant/branch spirits/gods chasing each other and producing light for them to catch fish ad night.... You may feel like everlasting thunderstorm may be intense and nerve-wracking... But it's quite peaceful and soothing.... Especially really late at night when the lighting is more active
Yes! A video about a Venezuelan place, I am Venezuelan, despite all the problems we are going through now, I love my country, and I love when someone features something about it, I've seen the Catatumbo ligthing with my own eyes, it's the most amazing thing ever, is located at Zulia state, I live at Mérida state, and from my state I can see the Catatumbo, so I let your imagine how amazing it is. Thanks for this video
I'm from Venezuela! I've been there and I've seen it! It's so beautiful and impressive!!
I want to see it! I love lightning
2:15 The two scientists who thought up explanations like, uranium deposits or methane leaks were just... brainstorming.
Oh no it happened again! Here’s some thunderous applause for you both. Now, must bolt, can’t take much more of this here current pun exchange
Well that was certainly en-lightning
I actually laughed at that, well done
Gavin
That would have been awesome but it's ok, SciShow Psych did give my comment today a "heart," which is nice too. I'm hoping someday they pick one of Patreon submitted questions. Other than that one Muscle Hank video I don't think I've ever been mentioned in a YT video before.
*rimshot*
This is sweet! Read and wrote about this phenomenon a while back and it’s still a spectacle we need to see with our own eyes at some point! Grand video!
When you are willing to go hit me up... I'm from there and well Maracaibeans are known in venezuela for our hospitality.... I'd be dammed if I didn't invite you to my city.... Maybe 2 to 5 years in te future will be secure to visit tho
Some people haven’t realized that these are strong evidence that this is Thor's summer home⚡️🌩🏠🌩 ⚡️
It's the summoning ritual for Cthulu
Justin Y. We both know the one true God is Ghandi: the god of War.
You mean ghandi the god of nukes
Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Cthulhu?
But Cthulhu is in the Pacific
sure i do i do lol :D does he promise eternal darkness and chaos by any chance?
Quickly, cram a lightning rod in that lake, and start scoring free electricity!
Randall Munroe (XKCD comic) talked about this in his book "What If". If I remember right, his conclusion was that the lightning would not generate all that much electricity, especially compared to other options like a dam or wind turbines. It's a neat idea and it seizes all my mad scientist tendencies, but it doesn't pan out the way we all naturally imagine.
Daniel Hale I think the issue is that we can't store the lightning, and while we could harness it to generate steam, I'm not sure how effective that would be.
If you like thunderstorms this is the place to live
+Daniel Hale
I aalways thought we didn't harness lightning because of the emense amount of energy in a short burst.... We simply dont have the technology to collect and store it.
Minutes to charge a mobile phone.... lightning is microseconds of emense energy.....
Elon where you at?
When I was a kid I was playing outside in a thunderstorm. I live in a desert and rain is rare so I took every chance to play in the rain. One lightning strike occurred just over my house. After the strike I could hear the rain sizzling in the super heated air. Then I noticed my hair was standing up and I decided it was time to go inside. That night lightning struck 2 transformers in my neighborhood one in my back yard and one half a block away. Years later It occurred to me that if I hadn't gone inside when I did I might have gotten struck by lightning.
Yeah apparently having your hair stand up during a lightning storm means you are being targeted by a lightning bolt, and it is probably best you head inside.
When I was a kid, i was standing inside the garage near the door and lighting struck the middle of a concrete slab in the driveway, about 25 feet away. The interesting note here though, is that the house wasn’t hit, an iron-pole basketball hoop wasn’t hit (some rusty metal exposed, and 7 feet away,) and trees in the close vicinity weren’t hit. When high currents are involved like lightning, sometimes it doesn’t go where you expect it too. The iron basketball hoop was very close by, but the lightning said “nah, I’ll strike over here today.” In 15 years living there, I can’t recall that pole ever being struck. Weird.
You can also smell it.
POVadventure In a parallel universe you were struck.
maybe the lightning strike was trying to tell you something.....like....what's under that concrete slab....?
Who came here for Lost in Space first episode of the second season? 😊🤗
Daubi Piccoli me
Spot on Daubi, curiosity is a connecting entity
Nice, guys!
Greetings from Brazil, by the way!
Happy New Year! 😊
Me to hi
me. I did.
Came here after hearing bout it on the show Lost in Space
That is now another place I would like to visit.
"Lost in Space" brought me here
Me too
That be one heck of a power source if they could harness that lightning!
love the punchline-ish way you said "a little more electric" at the end. was that even a joke, im not sure xD
Thank you so much for making a video about my beloved city and its weirdness
Surely they could create some way of harnessing this energy?
energy from lightning is actually very difficult to harness.
No, they can't. And don't call me Shirley.
Takes minutes to charge mobile phones and thats aa frction of a the energy over aa huge aamount of time.....
Lightning is huge amounts of energy in microseconds of time......
We dont hve the energy storage abilty to harness all that power.
Cubius Blockus Not to mention, the constant electricity being an issue and the extreme heat it generates.
Cubius Blockus we could use the energy to boil or heat water and harness that
Thx dude. needed a video for my science project. this is perfect!
In an episode of River Monsters, Jeremy Wade visited this lake & travelled up the river in search of some beastie, & I recall him giving the topography explanation for the frequent storms & lightning!
Shoutout Venezuela! It's sad that economically and politically it's a hole in the ground right now.
All the rich culture, food and geology. So sad. Glad my family brought me out 22 years before this mess occurred.
Belicose777 Calm down! No one is talking about how bad the economic or political situation in Venezuela is. So take it easy! I know it’s sad, but the video is about a meteorological phenomenon not about politics. Keep politics out of science please.
Kevin Martinelli I was just commenting on the fact that it's such a geologically rich and home to such a cool scientific phenomenon that would be cool to see even for the locals. Doubt that would happen with the condition the country is in. You should calm down. My comment was a matter of fact thing. Should've kept scrolling instead of being so bothered by it that you were compelled to reply. I forgot I posted this and most people didn't care to even reply. With all due respect. Just ignore the comment and keep it moving.
LagiNaLangAko23 I've been in the States for 2 decades. I was here long before anything happened so I wouldn't say we fled. My parents left at a fairly prosperous economic time. I don't even really know the place outside of pictures, home videos and my moms stories.
I loved learning about this because of netflix, I would have never have know otherwise.
It would be amazing to see it in person!
VENEZUELAAAAAAAAA ❤️❤️❤️
Kev Mafieus Venezuela carajoooo
X2
Maracaibo! La tierra del sol amada! Y del rayo que nunca se va!
Abio-genesis theories often attribute lightning to the process which led to the first proteins necessary for life to form... Cool!
I've always wanted to go there
Maracaibo born and raised here. I'm a scishow subscriber for years and I didn't even know about this video 😂😂
I've witnessed a very similar storm over Fish Lake Beach in Volo, IL. I could never quite describe it to anyone who hasn't seen it but I still try. It wasn't never ending but the lightning never stopped during the night. The lighting would trickle and flash non-stop with ball lightning and also dome lightning which was amazing to see. The dome lightning baffled me since it was like a turquoise green color and shot up from the ground, it was like some energy grenade went off or something.
Cole McGrath says hi
Venezuela gets an exclusive “lightning valley” kind of deal.
Wow nice!
That was a satisfying little pun at the end.
A "perfect storm" of environmental factors, huh?
Michael Wade beat me to it, but I must appreciate.
It's funny, all that electricity and Maracaibo is currently in an almost two days blackout.
Can't harness electricity.
trilight I think you mean we can't harness lightning... cause we harness electricity all the time.
>anything bad happens in a socialist country
>liberals: IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!!
>meanwhile most people who die of starvation and sickness live under capitalism
Cuanta razon
Thunder storms nearly year round?! I'm so moving to Lake Maracaibo
Chris Holdread Don’t! The government is a total mess! Poor people under terrible leadership!
Muscle hank where you at ?
Beautiful
That happened once in my city (Porto Alegre, Brazil), not one second would pass without a lightning, lots of lights going on and off lol
People who work in the Gulf of Mexico know of the nickel deposits from Padre Island east to Vermillion Bay, and throughout Florida. Nickel is one of the best at attracting electrical activity along with topography. Dig it.
A video updating the condition of the ozone layer would be interesting.
Damn, that must be one hell of a party up there
I would *_love_* to have that intensity of lightning year round !!
It's quite soothing.... I miss it so much
I like to sleep when there is a thunderstorm. The sound of the rain hiting my roof and the occasional thunder act like a nursery rhyme, putting me in deep sleep very quickly. I also like to wake up during a storm, mostly because I don't want to leave the bed, and I enjoy it when I can get away with it (I could do it more often when I was a kid).
I was wondering why nobody has harnessed this phenomenon but it likely has something to do with the five times hotter than the surface of the sun bit mentioned.
This goes on the list of places to visit.
Has anyone looked for other areas with similar features to see if they also have an above normal amount of lightning activity? I would think there would be other spots that trapped warm, moist air in a similar, though probably smaller size, that should exhibit similar lightning, helping to prove or disprove if that's the cause.
thank you, another day of not knowing exactly why there is always freaking lighting in the same place
Oh my, this could be the best spot in the world for a new kind of lightning-harvesting power plant!
Sounds like the perfect Miller-Urey experiment ;)
Rumours say that Qactuars once resided near Lake Maracaibo, but were hunted to extinction by a small group of only 7 people.
A good place for a lightning power station. Just need a way to store the energy - like giant coils to power a generator as the current flows through or or redirecting it to heat up some material as heat storage.
you mean to tell me no one has ever tried to tap into this power source?!?!? That's it, I'm calling Doc Brown!!
nice one sir ozone is very much useful also
Thank you Mercenaries 2. I actually learned about Lake Maracaibo from a video game.
ITS the main spot where information from the universe is sent and received by the the planet!
Someone built the Weather Control Device at there... and forgot to turn it off...
I was ecstatic when this appeared on my homepage
Best video on youtube I have
I wonder what you should do if you suspect you are being targeted by lightning and there is no shelter nearby to run to. Should you just hit the dirt and try to not be the tallest object in the area?
0:20 I though u where talking about Florida for a minute 😂😂😂
This was a weird trailer for the new Percy Jackson movie. Looks good.
Oh, don't underplay it with science theories and junk. We've *clearly* found where Zeus lives!
MushroomManToad is it Zeus? I thought it was Thor’s home 😅😅😅
Maybe it's the Speed Force.
yup...definitely speed force.
Your daily fact:
The longest wedding veil was longer than 63 football fields.
This lightning is what powers my chainsaw collection.
ChainSaw Hank there it is.
Ah ! Oh ! Catatumboh !
I have lived 36 years in Maracaibo and I have never been in that place. maybe I should go even just once
Creds to SciShow for using the metric system and putting the complete mess of a measuring system that the imperial system is to rest.
You should've included a video of the place.
I would LOVE to vacation here
it's better to see once than hear 100 times
Is it possible to take advantage from that lightning and use it as energy in the city of Maracaibo? I love lightning at night I probably will live in there for a while, but in the future for obvious reasons.
Nope... I'm from Maracaibo and... The area where lighting strikes is way too vast (about 90km squared) and the possibilities of striking where you want it is really low
Theres some technology using lasers to encourage lightning to discharge at a point you want it to. Maybe something like that could work.
It's funny because I just like this in class today it's it's astonishing
Lake Maracaibo is a superhero origin waiting to happen.
I loved in Maracaibo for many years. The lightening occurs in the mountains south of the lake, not on it. They are many hundreds of kilometers apart.
It happens in the lake not in the mountains. I live in Maracaibo
Sounds like a nice place or template for geoengineering.
Sooo... It's the Thunder Plains?
yes! this is why i came to the comment section. : D
Hey, could you harvest all of that lightning cause there is just so much of it? Would it be worth invesing in that kind of tech?
I really hope to see it for myself before I leave the country.
With so much lightning in the area all the time, I'm curious if it's common place for residents to be struck by lightning or if there is a high percentage of lightning strike related deaths?
There is a city and several towns under the permanent cloud... The area of strike is quite vast so those situations are actually almost as rare as any other part in the world... Source: I'm from there
I love the smell of trioxygen in the morning.
Muscle Hank you're late
Ryan Ronson
Do you people really think he ever leaves the gym? C'mon.
Muscle hank is never late. Like Gandalf, he arrives precisely when he means to. And that time is half past GAINZ O CLOCK
He's not late, he's busy hauling my meat stores to a deep freeze location in Antarctica.
Ryan Ronson punctuality is for the weak.
He would say "To maintain my muscles I breathe only trioxygen."
Wow!
I know now where I would like to retire... nothing more interesting than to watch a thunderstorm with a lot of lightning.
Perfect storm.
Cool concept for making energy might be to have a large metal pole somewhere near the lake to harvest the constant electricity into a battery?
I looked this up because phoenix az has had storms Like I've never seen my thirty years living hear. It's literally every second lightning for hours and the loudest thunder I've ever heard.
Could we use the lightning as an energy source?
That Assignment: Venezuela short they did on mst3k never mentioned this for some reason, it was just sunny constantly
Not a denier question, but genuinely curious why this Ozone doesn't make it into the upper atmosphere, but our aerosols from the CFC ban were able to make it into the upper atmosphere to deplete our Ozone? I honestly don't understand.
ReaperEOD the Ozone’s density plays a big role, like how water is less dense than a rock, so the rock sinks to the bottom
As if the huge updrafts in these storms couldn't carry ozone into the upper atmosphere either.
I mean, clearly, if the ozone layer is healing, it has to be coming from *somewhere.*
Ozone is very reactive so at ground level it doesn't last long. It is replenished naturally by UV splitting oxygen molecules forming radicals which react with oxygen molecules. CFCs are relatively stable at ground level (hence their heavy usage) but in the upper atmosphere they form chlorine radicals which unbalances the natural ozone cycle
That makes sense, thanks Oliver! Didn't think about compound stability and longevity being the key factor there.
pardon my ignorance but is there a way to harness the ozone.. I love this stuff .. thanx for the vid
Imagine if we could capture the energy of those strikes...
Could the lightning at Lake Maracaibo be used as a natural power source?
I want to see this place so bad. Along with a boombox and a copy of Birthday Massacre's 'Walking with Strangers'
Shocking
maybe we should develop the tech to harness lightning as an energy source, and put a powerplant there. good idea for a video to: why isn't lightning energy a thing yet?
If a spark gives off electromagnetic waves then a lightning strike would give off massive amounts of electromagnetic waves in which we could quite possibly harness those waves into energy essentially being a lightning Farm putting up Tesla coils could capture these electromagnetic waves
I don't understand why they say this ozone doesn't make it into the upper atmosphere, but the much larger molecule chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) does.
I learned about this storm from ISEKAI TENSEI SOUDOUKI manga (chapter 33). I glad manga can have interesting references because it lead me to this interesting video.
Made with lightning. REAL LIGHTNING!
No complaint but it's funny to me that everyone on this channel has a similar cadence and something within their actual voice tones that seem similar no matter man or woman. Still love the channel though.
Found out about this phenomenon on netflix show Lost in space season 2 episode 1. Cant believe in never heard of this phenomenon in my entire 27 years life..
In fact I'm seeing it right now from Colombia
So is it the 'boom' sort of lightning, or the no sound sort that is mostly produced?