Abstract
DURING a thunderstorm of considerable severity which passed over a district near Rothbury, Northumberland, on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 12 last, a flash of lightning apparently struck the ground and produced in it a vertical hole, approximately circular in section, and found on measurement to be 1 ft. 11 in. in depth. The hole is tapered, being 6 or 7 in. in diameter at the surface and about 2 in. in diameter at a distance of a foot below the surface. The hole was made in a grass field which lies on sloping ground and which consists of light loamy soil. The field, about 17 acres in extent, is almost surrounded by trees (chiefly firs). The position of the hole is not at the highest part of the field, but several feet below the highest level, while beyond the field are hills and moorland rising to a height of some hundreds of feet above the field. In the field is a clump of fir trees, close to which is a small hut, distant from the hole about 60 yards. A gamekeeper who was in the hut at the time the flash occurred was thrown violently backwards by the concussion which followed the flash, although he is confident he did not experience any electric shock. A hen in a coop about 10 ft. from the hole was killed, as also were four young pheasants, one inside the coop, and three near, but outside, it. A heavy rain accompanied the storm, which might account for the absence of any sign of burning round the hole. There were also two smaller holes formed at distances respectively of 4 ft. 6 in. and 7 ft. 6 in. from the main hole. The first was nearly horizontal, was open on the surface for some 10 in., and, for the few inches where it penetrated the surface, was about half an inch in diameter. The second was smaller still, slightly inclined to the vertical, and approximately a quarter of an inch in diameter and some two or three inches deep.
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HALL, W. Holes produced in Ground by Lightning Flash. Nature 126, 352 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126352a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126352a0
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