Catatumbo lightning

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The Catatumbo Lightning is the world's principal regenerator of the earth's ozone layer. ^[1] It's a cloud-cloud storm that forms a voltaic arc at more that 5 km of height, during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour, over the bog area that forms when the Catatumbo River flows into the Lake Maracaibo.

The collision with the winds coming from the Andes Mountains causes the storms and associated lightning, a result of electrical discharges through ionised gases, specifically the methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in the marshes. Being lighter than air, the gas rises up to the clouds, feeding the storms.

[edit] References

1. ^ Gobernación del Estado Zulia