Outline:
Email forward claims that attached photographs show a lightning storm meeting a large volcanic eruption in Chile.
Brief Analysis:
The photographs are genuine. They depict lightning in a plume of ash from an eruption of Chile’s Chaiten Volcano in May 2008.
Subject: Fw: Volcanic Eruption Meets Lightning StormTwo of nature’s most spectacular forces produced an incredible brew in the skies of Chile as a volcanic eruption met a lightning storm.
Detailed Analysis:
These spectacular photographs depicting lightning intermingled with the towering plume from an erupting volcano circulate via email, blogs and social media. The almost otherworldly sight of these two powerful forces of nature clashing with each other has caused some commentators to suggest that the images have been manipulated. However, the photographs are in fact genuine.
The photographs depict an eruption of the Chaiten volcano in Chile in May 2008. The volcano, which was previously dormant for thousands of years, is located around 1300km south of Santiago. An article about the eruption published on the Mail Online website on May 7th 2008 describes the event:
As clouds of toxic ash and dust tower into the sky, they ionise the air, generating an explosive electrical storm. Colossal forks of lightning spark around the noxious plume as it spews from the volcano’s crater, creating an image of raw, terrifying energy – as if the air itself were ablaze.
Several thousand residents were evacuated from the area and the plume from the eruption left large areas of land covered in a layer of ash.
These images have continued to circulate since they first appeared online in 2008. In June 2011, similar and equally spectacular photographs of lightning in another Chilean volcano ash cloud also began making their way around via websites, social media and news outlets. Chile’s Puyehue volcano began erupting on Saturday, June 4 2011.
Last updated: 15th June 2011
First published: th July 2008
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Chaiten Volcano Erupts
Amazing pictures: The lightning storm that engulfed an erupting volcano
Volcanic Lightning
Chile’s staggering volcanic spectacle
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
