• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1012 months ago

    Electrocuted, basically:

    “Lightning does not strike a point, it strikes an area,” said John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the National Weather Service. “The physical flash you see strikes a point, but that lightning is radiating out as ground current and it’s very deadly.”

      • knightly the Sneptaur
        link
        fedilink
        152 months ago

        Part of the problem is that we have two feet. When lightning strikes the ground nearby, it creates a difference in electric potential between the foot that’s closest to the impact point and the more distant one. If that potential is great enough, then an electric currect can jump through one’s shoe, go up into the body then down the other leg and back to ground.

        Laying down only increases the surface area in contact with the ground, so the best thing to do is get inside.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            22 months ago

            One Problem I could see with that is that your raised foot still needs to go somewhere. And if the resistance through the path up through your leg and to some part of your raised leg and then from there through the air back into the ground is lower than the one of the path through the ground from your lowered foot to the end of the aforementioned path then the lightning would still travel through your lower body.

          • knightly the Sneptaur
            link
            fedilink
            132 months ago

            Feet have non-zero surface area so there’s still room for an electric potential between the near and far side of the foot. It’d be smaller so that isn’t an entirely terrible idea, but it is by no means foolproof.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              62 months ago

              I think as long as it doesn’t pass through your heart,you’ll be fine with some cooked flesh

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 months ago

                “Fine”. Burns are very serious injuries prone to infection. Internal injuries are way harder to diagnose and treat. That’s a rough combination.

    • AugustWest
      link
      fedilink
      English
      35
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      That’s interesting. I have seen lightning split a tree and then follow wires into a house blowing out the wall all long the path of the wires. I have also seen it lift up decking when following underground wires.

      But if lightning hits with no lightning rod and ground is equally everywhere I guess I could imagine this result.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        262 months ago

        and ground is equally everywhere

        You make an interesting point; Lapland is known for being relatively flat, often stony and pretty much treeless. I’m sure that contributed to an increased radius.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            4
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            Oh, sorry I just assumed Lapland when I saw reindeer.

            Lapland - or Sápmi to be precise, but that’s an even larger area - is in the North of Finland, Sweden and Norway.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              2
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              In Norway we don’t use the lappland term for that area. That is just the area the sapmi originates for us. I knew that lappland was an official region in Finland, but didn’t know until now that it was an official region in Sweden as well. In Norway however the outlined area roughly consists of Finnmark, Troms, Nordland and Trøndelag.

              I guess we didn’t learn Sweden and Finlands regions in elementary school here in Norway in the 90s. I didn’t at least.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                12 months ago

                Its just a different name for the same region.

                Lapland (Sápmi in Northern Sami, Sää’mjânnam in Koltan Sami, Säämi in Inari Sami, Norwegian and Swedish Lappland, Russian Лапландия, Laplandija) is a historical region in the northern part of Fennoscandia in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. [1] The Sámi are the indigenous people of the region.

                Lapland does not form a unified administrative region

                It’s just that collectively there’s a change trying to stop using any terms with “lapp” in the due to its connotations, but since our language is very different, the connotation didn’t ever transfer and people have no idea it’s offensive in origin. So se do talk about the Sami people, when talking about the indigenous people, but anyone living in that area would be reasonably called “a lapplander”.

                Or idk, at least some people I’ve seen online have said it’s been used as an ethnic slur against the indigenous peoples at times, but I can’t find anything of that in Finnish. Which would explain why you call it Sapmi, because that’s the indigenous name for the people and the area and there may have been historical connotations with “lapp”, which we don’t have.

                I thought you we’re Finnish from the username sounding a tad Finnish and being on sopuli. And I thought Finns ought to know that despite it being also an administrative region in Finland, it also refers to the whole area.

                My mistake.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  22 months ago

                  No worries!

                  Lapp is a slur in Norwegian and not much used but I don’t know if it is used as an insult.

                  What does sopuli mean?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          152 months ago

          Small correction: this was in southwestern Norway; Lapland is in the far north of Finland.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        82 months ago

        I read somewhere that the induced electical field shift near a lightning strike is - while orders of magnitude calmer than the strike itself - still powerful enough to burn, maim and kill.

        I think it’s what Wikipedia calls “side splash” in the article on lightning injury?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        12 months ago

        Here’s a question with a non-intuitive answer, do you think lightning rods attract lightning or ….

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    472 months ago

    Imagine in prehistoric times you and your posse are stalking a herd of those when all of a sudden ZAP and they just lie there medium rare

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    132 months ago

    had this happened 2000 years ago a local village would be absolutely losing their SHIT.

    1. look at all that fucking MEAT
    2. god has blessed us with a bountiful harvest
    3. did you see all that fucking MEAT?!
    • Smee
      link
      fedilink
      82 months ago

      Way back there weren’t any settlements, only nomadic tribes. They’d loose their shit alright. “Oh no, our transport and future food resources!”

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        62 months ago

        Hard to know.

        Could go either way.

        I can certainly imagine people avoiding it because of implied danger.

        … but I can also imagine people evaluating it and concluding that “they don’t look sick, and they taste fine”.

        I guess the decision depends on how hungry you are.

        I think it’s important to point out that anyone making this decision was probably using the herd as a primary source of food…it’s pretty clearly a sign that you should hit the road.