# Lightning striking ocean water **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2024, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158 "2024-12-04T15:39:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/21 "2024-12-05T07:35:02Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > So standing on one foot during a lightning strike is the safest stance? The advice I’ve heard is to squat, which makes you low and therefore a less attractive target for the lighting in the first place. In addition, keep your feet close together to minimize the step voltage between them, and touch your ankles to each other so that they provide a shorter path across your two feet than your thorax in the event that there actually is a strike near you. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/22 "2024-12-05T18:02:30Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Why do you think the current would radiate preferentially along the surface of the water rather than dissipating radially in all directions Skin effect but there’s plenty of WAG on my part. It’s normally most apparent at high frequencies and fast impulses. Lightning is fast for you & me but not compared to the coupling that occurs at even a modest 10 MHz. So there’d be _some_ skin and zero in the up direction and the hemisphere gets pulled flatter, perhaps like a hemiSaturn. N/S, not E/W, lol. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/23 "2024-12-05T18:09:21Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Generally not. The lightning typically discharges along the surface. How deep the charge gets, we don’t really know, but generally unless a fish is swimming right at the surface or jumping into the air as the lightning strikes, they won’t be affected. Really? I would have thought that since seawater is such a good conductor, the electron repulsion would cause them to spread through the water in a hemispherical pattern. But I’m definitely no kind of electricity or lightning expert. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/24 "2024-12-06T03:08:35Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > But we’re talking about creatures in open water, so I don’t think that applies. It applies exactly the same in principle. The current that flows through the fish depends on the potential difference between the different parts of the fish because that is what is going to cause current to flow through the fish. Theoretically, just like for Francis\_Vaughan’s animals, a fish on facing in towards the strike will have a greater potential difference head to tail than a fish that is side on to the strike. However, the advantage an ocean fish has is that it’s surrounded by a very good conductor. Which means that the potential difference in the seawater, along the length of the fish, is going to be lower than for the same length on land, because land is higher resistance. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/25 "2024-12-06T11:39:05Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Are fish affected by lightning strikes if in close proximity? [Well…](https://external-preview.redd.it/gPLELE4hzJ6p-nxiMXRhFV51kcOAKHOmPAXyv6PoCAM.jpg?auto=webp&s=2c77217f42edac37a65deb1f6de9b5d335ab96f9) (contains a written-out swear word) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/26 "2024-12-06T14:52:00Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Electric eels produce low-level shocks and high level shocks. What were electric eels called before we discovered electricity? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/27 "2024-12-06T14:56:43Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > > > Electric eels produce low-level shocks and high level shocks. > > What were electric eels called before we discovered electricity?   Whatever the local natives called them. Europeans have always called them “electric”.  [Electric eel - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#Taxonomy) > When the species now defined as _Electrophorus electricus_ was described by [Carl Linnaeus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus) in 1766, based on early field research by Europeans in South America and specimens sent back to Europe for study,[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-de_As%C3%BAa_2008-4)[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Edwards_2021-5)[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Hunter_1775-6) he used the name _Gymnotus electricus_ , placing it in the same genus as _[Gymnotus carapo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnotus_carapo)_ (the banded knifefish).[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Linnaeus_1766-7)[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Jordan_1963-8)[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Sleen2017-9) He noted that the fish is from the rivers of [Surinam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surinam_(Dutch_colony)), that it causes painful shocks, and that it had small pits around the head.[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-Linnaeus_1766-7)[[b]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_eel#cite_note-11) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/28 "2024-12-06T14:57:12Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > A typical lightning bolt is somewhere in the range of several hundred million volts and contains several billion joules of energy. > > The eel is toast. Mmmm-mmm! Baked eel on toast. Probably real easy to spread too after the energy flux boils the innards and it bursts like an overcooked spud. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/29 "2024-12-06T15:04:28Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Whatever the local natives called them. Europeans have always called them “electric”. Huh. Didn’t realize electric eels weren’t universal. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/30 "2024-12-06T20:45:37Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Didn’t realize electric eels weren’t universal. As long as they have the right travel adapters they’ll be fine. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2024, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/31 "2024-12-07T05:28:16Z")
Hah! (Plus a Nice one! to please Discourse.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158/32 "2024-12-08T04:10:07Z")
Thinking how lightning striking the ocean may have been the impetus for biogenesis on this planet: when all the elements needed for life are present and get an energy input. Like the Miller-Urey experiment, combining methane and oxygen and giving it electric shocks until it formed amino acids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-ocean-water/1011158.md?page=1)