The Beauty of Gods Creation ~ The Catatumbo Lightning Lightning? Biblical? You bet! The meteorological light shows that we enjoy here on earth are one of Gods own ideas, and His Word mentions the phenomenon quite often - in historical accounts, in poetry, and as descriptive comparisons where no other thing was appropriate. In fact, the Bible says that once man (that includes you and me, by the way) has seen the magnificence, the intricacies, and the beauties of what has been created, we then have no excuse for not knowing that God exists. And if God is for real, then we should be very interested in what He has to say about where we are now, and where we are going. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse;.... - Romans 1:20 Luke 17:24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. __________________________ The Catatumbo Lightning is a light show that has been going on for thousands of years in Venezuela has made it into the Guinness record books. The mouth of the Catatumbo River, in the western Venezuelan state of Zulia, claimed the record for the area with the most lightning — notching an incredible 3,600 flashes per hour. According to io9, the residents of the nearby Lake Maracaibo need to shut their blinds against the light roughly 300 nights each year. For centuries, the indigenous people of Northwestern Venezuela called the phenomenon rib a-ha or river of fire in the sky, and ancient mariners supposedly used the lightning for navigation. The storm is so central to regions identity that the state of Zulia put a large lightning bolt in the middle of its flag. Why this particular area should be the site of the worlds most perfect storm is still an open question. Some researchers say the conductivity of the air is increased over Catatumbo due to pronounced methane. The Maracaibo basin sits atop one of South Americas largest oil fields. Environmentalist Erick Quiroga, who has been monitoring the lightning for 17 years, proposed the phenomenon to Guinness last year. Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza received the certificate from the Guinness representatives. Before the region claimed the title, the town of Kikuka in the Democratic Republic of Congo held the Guinness World Record for the highest concentration of lightning, with 158 lightning bolts per square kilometer each year.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:16:15 +0000
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