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When Lightning Strikes Sand?

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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Image of the Week #99, July 8th, 2013:From:What Really Happens When Lightning Strikes Sand: The Science Behind a Viral Photo by Kyle Hill at Overthinking It. Source: Unknown, all over the Web. Did you catch this incredible viral picture this week of what happens when lightning strikes sand? It's not hard to imagine that a massive amount of energy that's concentrated where lightning strikes could do something spectacular to sand when it hits a beach. There's only one problem: this photo is not it. It's fake. Kyle Hill explains how you can tell and shows us what lightning really does to sand in his post "What Really Happens When Lightning Strikes Sand: The Science Behind a Viral Photo".