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Electrocuted, basically:
“Lightning does not strike a point, it strikes an area,” said John Jensenius, a lightning safety specialist with the National Weather Service. “The physical flash you see strikes a point, but that lightning is radiating out as ground current and it’s very deadly.”
That's interesting. I have seen lightning split a tree and then follow wires into a house blowing out the wall all long the path of the wires. I have also seen it lift up decking when following underground wires.
But if lightning hits with no lightning rod and ground is equally everywhere I guess I could imagine this result.
I read somewhere that the induced electical field shift near a lightning strike is - while orders of magnitude calmer than the strike itself - still powerful enough to burn, maim and kill.
I think it's what Wikipedia calls "side splash" in the article on lightning injury?
i mean there's also the large amount of plasma which is very hot
and ground is equally everywhere
You make an interesting point; Lapland is known for being relatively flat, often stony and pretty much treeless. I'm sure that contributed to an increased radius.
Small correction: this was in southwestern Norway; Lapland is in the far north of Finland.
Oh, sorry I just assumed Lapland when I saw reindeer.
Lapland - or Sápmi to be precise, but that's an even larger area - is in the North of Finland, Sweden and Norway.
When you correct people, double-check that you're correct.
I spent several weeks in Lapland, and I was nowhere close to Finland at any point
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had this happened 2000 years ago a local village would be absolutely losing their SHIT.
- look at all that fucking MEAT
- god has blessed us with a bountiful harvest
- did you see all that fucking MEAT?!
I don't think they would go near that.
Hard to know.
Could go either way.
I can certainly imagine people avoiding it because of implied danger.
... but I can also imagine people evaluating it and concluding that "they don't look sick, and they taste fine".
I guess the decision depends on how hungry you are.
I think it's important to point out that anyone making this decision was probably using the herd as a primary source of food...it's pretty clearly a sign that you should hit the road.
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Way back there weren't any settlements, only nomadic tribes. They'd loose their shit alright. "Oh no, our transport and future food resources!"
Lightning is one of those things that makes it easy to see why people invented Gods to explain the phenomena.
wizards
OP since original D&D.
Area of effect what's that
how does lightning work? I've seen videos of people being struck like 5 times and they are fine with some scars and minor nerve trauma. What causes that person to be ok, but 300 reindeer just die?
You get a circular voltage gradient away from the strike spot. A human with their two legs doesn't spread along that as far as a deer's four legs do, so they catch more voltage drop across that, which also runs through their body (along their heart etc). It just depends a lot on how and where a body is affected by electricity.
that's a good explanation thank you
Also, when the lighting struck, it was probably not from a clear sky. And reindeer can huddle. So if they're all pretty much already touching each other...
Or even if they're not huddled, they have a sort of defense mechanism where they just running in circles when threatened.
https://www.livescience.com/64778-vikings-reindeer-cyclone.html
So I imagine a thunderstorm might elicit that response. It's just a guess though.
I just keep watching this. It’s fascinating to see how the “eye” of the herd forms, strengthens, and moves. The individual actions of dozens, if not hundreds, of reindeer coalesce into the same pattern as a hurricane… Fucking beautiful. Thank you for sharing this.
Oh deer...
mildly horrifying
This Practical Engineering video explains the concepts behind how this happened
TLDR: The electricity is trying to flow through the Earth, but a reindeer is a better conductor, so it flows up into the nearest leg and down out the furthest leg. If they were standing on one foot they might've been ok
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Imagine in prehistoric times you and your posse are stalking a herd of those when all of a sudden ZAP and they just lie there medium rare
...along with you and your posse
⚡ SMITED ⚡
How many survived? How big was this herd? That's pretty insane, no matter how you cut it
AWWW FUCK YEA
DEER SEASON IS LOOKIN GOOOOOOOD
My god the smell
Yes, the smell of venison is hunger inducing, rotten flesh, not so much
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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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