Click either choice below to hear Lightning:
QuickTime (46K)
|
 |
 |
This sound of lightning striking the ocean was recorded underwater in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sound courtesy of Henry Bass, Roy Arnold and Anthony Atchley, National Center for Physical Acoustics.
Lightning makes one of the loudest natural sounds in the ocean. The source level of lightning striking the ocean surface is about 260
at 1 meter. Lightning strikes the coastal ocean at a rate of about 2 strikes per square kilometer per year. Lightning in the open ocean is rare. Most people are very familiar with lightning because lightning strikes the land much more often than the ocean. In the arctic and antarctic there is very little lightning.
