Dig this Lightning
© Alan SeallsYou're checking out at the supermarket. The rhythmic beeping of the grocery scanner puts you in a trance. Your eyes meander toward the tabloids. Just beneath the miracle diet headline is one about a mystery trench in a cemetery. "Cable TV for the Afterlife?" This is not real but the following is a true story.
Late in the summer of 2007, a gentleman in west Mobile, Alabama, reported lightning had dug a trench in his family cemetery. I had heard of lightning trenches but never had I seen one. Curious whether the man was confused or pulling a prank I went to the cemetery to see for myself. The furrow was easy to spot. It looked just like somebody used a trencher to sloppily lay a cable line. I was blown away by the length and depth.
From the base of a tall oak tree a gash in the ground ran straight more than 60 feet to the east (from B to C) and branched outward. I was still a little skeptical so I looked further.
Walking around the west side of the
oak tree I spotted where bark had been freshly peeled away in a
vertical stripe along a high limb (A).
It continued on to a larger middle limb. This is a common sign of a lightning strike although midway to the ground the stripe disappeared.
It continued on to a larger middle limb. This is a common sign of a lightning strike although midway to the ground the stripe disappeared.
There was no burn or missing bark
around the trunk but at the base of the tree was a 12 inch deep
hole (B),
about 8 inches across with a burn to the root.
about 8 inches across with a burn to the root.
From this point (B) a trench ran to
the east in a straight line, varying between 5 and 10 inches both
in depth and width.
These numbers shrank as the trench started branching about 30 feet away (C).
These numbers shrank as the trench started branching about 30 feet away (C).
Soil was randomly tossed out in
clumps and chunks, as much as 8 feet. Roots along the path were
charred as seen above.
The main trench went to the corner
of an in-ground crypt and traveled underneath the lid before
exiting. Just short of the exit it blew off a small piece of
cement into multiple fragments (D), and then continued a few more
feet to the base of a small oak tree next to a metal fence (E).
Here it took a 90 degree turn to run along the fence, leaving
another small trench, before disappearing several feet later.
Adjacent to the fence I saw a small hole under the metal leg of a
bench (F). This may have been caused by smaller and more winding
branches that left the main trench (C) as much as 30 feet toward
adjacent graves.
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the photo above for commercial use at www.weathervideohd.tv/
As a group the various paths mimicked the forking pattern seen in cloud to ground lightning bolts.
In retracing my steps I was even more surprised to spot smaller portions of a trench on the opposite side of the tall oak tree, in the same straight line as the main gash but apparently traveling in the other direction (B to G).
Lightning trenches have been documented before and they are probably more common than not but this one was remarkably straight and large. The mystery is what, if anything was beneath the ground to channel the stroke in a straight line through the tree base. Usual suspects are wires, pipes, old fence lines, mineral deposits, and streams.
Ron Holle, a meteorological consultant with Vaisala says none of these may be the cause. In similar cases he found that there was nothing in-ground that channeled the electricity. "Lightning typically radiates outward in several arcs from the strike point." It's possible that there were other less-visible trenches. Ron cautions, "There is no reliable way to project where the current will go across the ground in these arcs. There is no way to safely predict where one can be safe near a tree.”
The second mystery is what the current did as it passed through the graves. Your guess is as good as mine but I was not about to start digging in this cemetery!
