Explained: Can a single lightning flash kill 18 elephants? Science says yes, in various possible ways
8 July 2021
On Wednesday
night, 18 elephants died on a hilltop in Assam. The preliminary
post-mortem report indicates they had been struck by lightning. While
the state government is waiting for the final report before definitely
ruling out other possible causes, the preliminary conclusion raises a
question: Can a single flash of lightning kill 18 elephants? The answer
is yes, based on science and a history of such events.
How does lightning kill animals?
Lightning
may injure or kill animals in a number of ways, physicist and engineer
Chandima Gomes wrote in the International Journal of Biometeorology in
2012.
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