In Venezuela, where the Catatumbo river flows into the salty lake Maracaibo, about 160 times a year, you can see the incredible natural phenomenon known as "lightning, Catatumbo" or "the lighthouse Maracaibo". Night, at the height of 5 thousand kilometers, hundreds of bright lightning. Overnight, the number may reach nearly 300 discharges.

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The capacity of each electric discharge comes to 400 thousand amps, so you can see them at a distance over 400 km and This was often used by travelers and explorers in the past. For bright flashes on the horizon are easy to find the right way to the shores of this part of South America, causing a phenomenon called "the lighthouse Maracaibo".

The Indians who lived on these territories, believed that these bright flashes appear in the sky when the fireflies meet the souls of their ancestors. But the Indians saw the lightning and in other places, and realized that it is a natural phenomenon. Then why the shocks they are associated with a legend? The fact that during the appearance in the sky of lightning, Catatumbo not typical of thunder and the flash occur in a complete silence followed except that the wind noise.

Not exactly proved, resulting in the mouth of the Catatumbo river, there is the phenomenon of nature. But many scientists say that the reason lies in the increased level of methane. For several kilometers around the area is very swampy, and the wind, blowing from the Andes, brings from the mountain tops of strong thunderstorms. Due to the fact that methane is lighter than air, it rises, fills the air and feeds the electric discharges. As a result of the ongoing process during storms and thunderstorms that occur in the area from 80 to 200 days a year, appear in the sky the amazing silent lightning. If you count the number of digits in one year, you get an impressive number - more than 1 million.

Of course, on Earth there are places where the level of methane is much higher than in lake Maracaibo, but such natural phenomena there. Until recently, scientists cited this reason as evidence of the frivolity of the theory of the meeting methane mountain thunderstorms. To verify the correctness of the causes of the phenomenon failed in 2010, when the lighthouse of Maracaibo went out for almost three months. Scientists immediately sounded the alarm, and when checked the content of methane in the air, it turned out that after a severe drought gas emissions from wetlands has decreased dramatically. This was the reason for the absence of electrical discharges.

Today look at the amazing lightning, Catatumbo in Venezuela, travelers come from all over the world. And this spectacle is really worth seeing.