Lightning storm breaks out amid volcanic eruption ash cloud - PHOTO

Billowing high into the sky, this volcanic ash cloud - and the lightning around it - is something to behold.

An eruption of the Cordón Caulle volcano in central Chile is pictured here in all it's glory by Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni.His stunning snaps show forks of volcanic lightning to create a light show that truly drives home Mother Nature’s terrifying splendour.This particular volcanic eruption began in June 2011. Mr Negroni was there with his trusty Nikon D300 to capture the action. The eruption was in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, about 575 miles south of the capital, Santiago.The chain last saw a major eruption in 1960. As a precaution, the government evacuated 3,500 people from the surrounding area.It was the latest in a series of volcanic eruptions in Chile in recent years. Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted spectacularly in 2008 for the first time in thousands of years, spewing molten rock and a vast cloud of ash that reached the stratosphere.The ash also swelled a nearby river and ravaged a nearby town of the same name.The ash cloud from Chaiten coated towns in Argentina and was visible from space. Chile's Llaima volcano, one of South America's most active, erupted in 2008 and 2009.Chile's chain of about 2,000 volcanoes is the world's second largest after Indonesia. Some 50 to 60 are on record as having erupted, and 500 are potentially active.Volcanic lightning - also known as a dirty thunderstorm - is a weather phenomenon that occurs when lightning is produced in a volcanic plume.The little-understood storms may be sparked when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collide to produce static charges just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms.In a study carried out by the state engineering university New Mexico Tech, researchers used radio waves to detect the previously unknown type of lightning as it flashed from the crater of Alaska's Mount Augustine volcano.Co-author Ronald J. Thomas said: 'During the eruption there were lots of small lightning [bolts] or big sparks that probably came from the mouth of the crater and entered the [ash] column coming out of the volcano.'So we saw a lot of electrical activity during the eruption and even some small flashes going from the top of the volcano up into the cloud. That hasn't been noticed before.'The new evidence suggests that the eruption produced a large amount of electric charge.'We're not sure if it comes out of the volcano or if it is created just afterwards. One of the things we have to find out is what's generating this charge,' Thomas added.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az