In 1977, a US project used satellites to monitor the globe for nuclear explosions, but they unexpectedly caught intense flashes of light a thousandth of a second long. These were lightning superbolts, the most powerful lightning on Earth, 100 times more powerful than typical lightning and capable of causing serious damage.
Superbolts are rare – less than 1% of all lightning – and what creates them has long been a mystery. But a study of superbolts across the globe revealed three hotspots where superbolts were most frequent: the north-east Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the high-altitude Altiplano plateau across Peru and Bolivia.
