White-Hot Show at Iceland Volcano

Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot A blast of white-hot lightning crackles over Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Sunday. Clouds of volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajokull have snarled European air traffic for nearly a week. National Geographic Your Shot submitter Peter Vancoillie took the photograph from about 18 miles (30 kilometers) away from the volcanic lightning storm, which not "unlike a regular old thunderstorm," said Martin Uman, a lightning expert at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The same ingredients are present: water droplets, ice, and possibly hail—all interacting with each other and with particles, in this case ash from the eruptions, to cause electrical charging, Uman said. The volcanic-lightning pictures are 'really very sensational,' Uman said. 'Somebody ought to be up there with an HD movie camera—it's ready for the IMAX theater.' (Courtesy: National Geographic)