I had a really nice post written out, but my computer ate it, so I am keeping this short and sweet. Jim and I took a hike a few weeks ago and saw some really interesting trees. The first tree we saw was this one.
Bark was off the tree all the way from the tippy top to the bottom. Pieces of bark were everywhere. We tried to figure out what had happened to the tree and tossed some ideas around. Finally we wondered if maybe it had been hit by lightning. Nothing looked charred though.
The pieces of bark were weird strips and the missing bark was about two to three inches across.
Later on in the hike we saw two more weird trees. Between the two of us we have seen a LOT of trees in our hikes but neither one of us had seen ones quite like these. We jokingly called the first tree the trident.
After the hike I googled lightning strike and tree, and came up with images that were the same as EACH of the three trees we saw. The explanations which accompanied the pictures I saw essentially said that sometimes when lightning hits a tree, especially when the tree is wet, that it can do these sort of things. The heat of the lightning superheats the moisture (in the sap and in the water between the bark and the heartwood) and instantaneously creates explosive steam which results in the tree essentially exploding.
Pretty cool, eh? :)
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