[time-nuts] Loran, GPS, Lightning, Timing

[Neville Michie]

Back on the topic of lightening,
a destructive side of lightening can occur with between-cloud strikes.
Beneath a cloud with a hefty charge on it there is a counter charge, a reflection,
on the earths surface. This will have the same amount of charge but in inverse polarity.
When the charge in the cloud jumps to another cloud, the counter charge has to move to
beneath the new cloud.
This involves currents of equal magnitude to lightening strikes moving in a similar 
time frame.
Any water pipe or buried telephone or power cable may be obliged by a potential 
voltage similar to a lightening strike to carry part of this current.
I saw a buried phone line that had been 3 feet underground converted to an open 
trench 100 yards long.
Any conducting cable that cuts the transient magnetic field during one of these events
may be a victim.
Fibre optic would seem to be the answer for protection.
cheers,
Neville Michie