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Chili Volcano -- Thunder and LIghtning

Recently a volcano that had been dormant for 9,000 years near the coast of Chile erupted spectacularly, hurling liquified metals and lightning many miles into the sky.

The results, which you see here, are called a "dirty thunderstorm" and are quite rare.

Nobody is certain what causes them, but according to National Geographic it's believed to be "the result of rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume colliding to produce static charges - just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms."

(Click on photos to enlarge)