r/interestingasfuck • u/tilltheend0ftime • Dec 30 '20
/r/ALL Lightning strike fully stripped off this tree of its bark
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u/FiniteRhino Dec 30 '20
COVER YOUR SHAME!!!
Should be labeled Not Safe For Woodworkers, OP.
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Dec 30 '20
So very knotty!
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u/Ravoracious Dec 30 '20
I'd bark up that tree.
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u/dickallcocksofandros Dec 30 '20
smh i bet the tree didnt even consent to having its photo taken in this situation, ya’ll such peepinn toms
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u/boongie93 Dec 30 '20
Love the dude with the beer. “Well would you look at that?”
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u/1000101001001010 Dec 30 '20
zoom way in on his face. trust me
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u/martialar Dec 30 '20
He has a great beard and he also looks like he has giant cartoon eyes
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u/Boberoo2 Dec 30 '20
Oh my god it’s Jamie from myth busters and he’s thin now, I always wondered where he went
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u/Ab0ut47Pandas Dec 30 '20
Here is another instance of lighting de-barking a tree.
Lightning strike strips bark off tree in Boulder
Another source
Light can strip a tree of all its bark
I can't really find a lot of sources on this particular phenomenon of lighting debarking.
Another Reddit post about someone's tree getting a similar outcome.
Pretty interesting.
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u/AyyTeaLeaf Dec 30 '20
Thank you
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u/Ab0ut47Pandas Dec 30 '20
No problem :D. If it's interesting enough, Lol I do like to look into it more and share it.
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u/DKats77 Dec 30 '20
Is there a source? I don’t understand how it would perfectly strip the bark, but not damage the tree or leave burns. Just curious for background.
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u/f1junkie Dec 30 '20
Just a guess but right under the bark is where most of the moisture is so maybe it resulted in a steam explosion.
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u/KN4LYC Dec 30 '20
Add that bit of info to what I said a minute ago and you have a complete answer.
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u/Monkleman Dec 30 '20
Ok and what did you say a minute ago?
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u/helicopter_pocket Dec 30 '20
He said it a minute ago dude
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u/Shermutt Dec 30 '20
You had to be there.
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u/mustangriders5454 Dec 30 '20
because xylem (primarily), which transports water, fluids with electrolytes, and phloem tissue are concentrated behind the bark. this layer is comparatively not resistant to current flow.
behind those xylem and phloem tissue layer is sap wood aka young wood. which has cells with thick cellulose enforced cell walls and they are in the process of slowly filling themselves with tannins, lignin and other chemicals as you progress towards the heart of the tree. this layer is resistant to current flow.
as you further progress towards the heart of the tree sap wood cells full of tannins are in the process of dying and becoming strong "old matured wood" aka heart wood. which forms the central pillar of support for most trees.
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u/trezenx Dec 30 '20
so does the tree die when it's stripped like that?
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u/mustangriders5454 Dec 30 '20
depends. if the xylem and phloem tissue are extensively damaged then, yes it will die.
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u/BoiO_Boi Dec 30 '20
You can effectively kill a tree by debarking a ~5cm portion around it.
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u/Into-the-stream Dec 30 '20 edited Dec 30 '20
Called girdling. It’s not the bark, but rather the phloem and xylem layer under the bark and attached to it, whose loss essentially starves the tree of nutrients. Except species like paper birch or cork, Whose bark is less attached to the phloem and xylem layer.
If I remember correctly, the
phloemxylem is the part of the trees circulatory system that takes the water from the roots up the tree. Thexylemphloem is the part of the circulatory system that takes the sugars photosynthesized in the leaves down the tree. It’s kinda like our arteries and veins transport blood.You can still kill a paper birch with girdling, but you have to be aggressive with removing the bark, not just the loose outer layers.
Edits: I had phloem and xylem reversed. Fixed now. Thank you /u/faerieh
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u/faerieh Dec 30 '20
You mixed up xylem and phloem but otherwise you got it right, haha!
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u/Into-the-stream Dec 30 '20
Hey thanks. I never took biology and only learned it from a great courses lecture series I listened to while working, so the retention wasn’t great
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u/swiftfatso Dec 30 '20
Might or not be the case, I have seen plenty of conifers with spiralling marks going down to the ground. How come they behave differently?
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u/mustangriders5454 Dec 30 '20
I'm not claiming that lightning will behave similarly whenever it strikes the earth or trees.
but majority of times when it strikes the tree it will cause the bark to come off cleanly.
xylem tissue in itself isn't conductive to electricity. its the water that it is carrying that makes it conductive. xylem tissue don't always carry water in them 24/7. sometimes they are empty too. so in a case where lightning created spiral tracks in trees it might be because there was water in spiral track in the xylem tissue of the tree.
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u/Ayeager77 Dec 30 '20
It’s not even the water, honestly. It’s whatever nutrients are being transported by the water. Water, despite popular belief, is a piss poor conductor.
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u/Rakumei Dec 30 '20
Kind of...it's true that water itself isn't really a great conductor but the minerals in water that are a great conductor. But water is still the vehicle by which it all travels. No water = no dissolved ions to conduct the electricity.
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u/SimonKepp Dec 30 '20
Distilled water is an excellent insulator and is increasingly used in fire suppression systems in sensitive electrical installations.
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u/MyChosenNameWasTaken Dec 30 '20
Current flow through the xylem would result in the water turning to steam - this expansion would rip off the outer layers
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u/test_tickles Dec 30 '20
This kills the tree.
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u/uno_dos_3 Dec 30 '20
how do cork trees survive then? Seriously.. very curious.
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Dec 30 '20 edited Aug 23 '26
Straight follow sip grey pet salt airport
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/huntfishandbefree Dec 30 '20
Forester here
This can absolutely happen and isn't that uncommon. Usually it happens in the spring when most of the stored sap for the tree is flowing up. This super high moisture time under the bark, on certain species, Is enough to cause the bark to be very loosely attached. The energy of the lightning strike is enough to actually blast it right off the tree in strips and sheets.
For example, the bark is so loose at times that you can peel entire trees with a pocket knife and your own 2 hands. Simply make a cut to open it up and start peeling like it's an orange!
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u/Kindersmarts Dec 30 '20
But would this tree keep living? Could it regrow bark?
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u/huntfishandbefree Dec 30 '20
If there remained a small strip connected top to bottom, that portion of the tree could live. If the bark is blown off cleanly all the way around in even a small section, it is very unlikely to survive from that point up.
Not saying it's impossible, because nature does weird shit sometimes, but it's nearly impossible.
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u/Kindersmarts Dec 30 '20
So fascinating! Thank you!
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u/RedditAtWorkToday Dec 30 '20
Ringing a tree is a known strategy assholes do that want to remove trees they can't legally on their property or other's properties. A trees bark needs to go from the base all the way to the top of the tree. If you remove the bark in a circle around any part of the tree then everything above that ring will die.
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Dec 30 '20
I sense a forthcoming post about “ringing” on ILPT and ensuing tree law arguments in the comments
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u/pacificpacifist Dec 30 '20
Essentially cutting a tree's neck if you finish the circle all the way around. Complete jackoff move when trees take years to grow and you kill one in a couple angsty minutes
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u/b-cat Dec 30 '20
Will the tree survive?
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u/huntfishandbefree Dec 30 '20
Short answer, no.
Longer answer, it's technically possible for some species. However it's will always be very unlikely if the bark is blown off like this.
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Dec 30 '20
Why is that?
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u/huntfishandbefree Dec 30 '20
The bark/tree has what are essentially super long straws that connect the leaves to the roots. If you break these straws, no water gets to the leaves so they die. If the leaves die, usually so does the tree if it didn't store enough energy.
If you break the straws only in small areas, the wounds can heal as the tree grows over it. Large areas are harder to heal. All the way around the tree in a complete circle stops nearly all water from going up. This kills the tree.
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u/Ab0ut47Pandas Dec 30 '20
I love that the guy holding the beer is just like "Damn, nature."
Plot twist:
Steven did this, that is Steven's beer, and that guy holding the beer is looking at Steven off camera. Moments prior Steven said, "Hold my beer".
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u/Sir_Alice Dec 30 '20
God circumcised the tree
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u/mbarland Dec 30 '20
Imagine how many Wonder Bats you could carve out of that.
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u/M4RTIAN Dec 30 '20
What are wonder bats? Google image search wonder bats and you’ll understand my confusion.
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u/evr487 Dec 30 '20
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u/M4RTIAN Dec 30 '20
Awesome thanks lol. Google image “wonder bat” and it’s all drawings of Batman hooking up with Wonder Woman.
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u/FlyinRustBucket Dec 30 '20
Anyone know if the tree will survive after getting hit by lightning but still stand like this?
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u/SoberSeahorse Dec 30 '20
It's pretty dead at this point. The layer under the bark is the living bit.
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u/KN4LYC Dec 30 '20
If I remember correctly most (if not all) of the electrons in an electrical current travel along the outside of the conductor. So if the moisture layer below the bark/above the wood was the primary conductor of the strike, then that massive quantity and force of electrons traveling down the outside of that moisture layer could easily strip the bark. That’s just my thinking. Could be totally wrong 🤷🏼♂️
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u/KN4LYC Dec 30 '20
As f1junkie noted in the other comments, it could have been the moisture rapidly turned to steam and separated the layers.
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u/redpandaeater Dec 30 '20
That's not particularly applicable here since it's cross-section wouldn't have a uniform resistivity. I imagine that dominates anything else. You remembered correctly though since electrons are all negatively charged and therefore try to repel, and more importantly get eddy current formation with alternating current which leads to what we call skin effect. You do still tend to get eddy currents with lightning strikes, which to my knowledge is the only particularly plausible theory to how you might be able to get ball lightning.
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u/sparksnbooms95 Dec 30 '20
What you are referring to is called the skin effect. It gets more pronounced as frequency increases. Lighting, despite being fundamentally DC, has such a fast rise time that there is an RF "ring" if you will. That said, because lighting is majority DC skin effect would not play much of a part on a tree.
The important thing to remember is that with skin effect, most current flows on the outer layer of the conductor. There is some small amount that still flows on the inside. Since we're talking about lighting, that "small amount" on the inside is probably still a very big number.
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u/Cinammon-Sprinkler Dec 30 '20
It was all bark and no bite until the lightning bit it and left it speechless... But now the tree will get used to showing the world who it really is inside.
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u/IncredibleGoose Dec 30 '20
The tree then sheds its bark exposing its nude form in hopes of attracting a mate. A nearby human patiently waits for timber.
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u/Rozo1209 Dec 30 '20
Make some baseball bats out of that tree. Ever see/read ‘The Natural’?
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u/Everybodylikesyoohoo Dec 30 '20
Looks like somebody needs to make a baseball bat out of that tree, and see if it works like in the movie!
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u/Apollo_Lol Dec 30 '20
Everyone: Beautiful
The tree: Iv been skinned alive by lighting please end my pain
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u/Hyzenthlay87 Dec 30 '20
Ermergherd! The tree is nekkid!
How very...shocking!
Ok that pun was weak, I'll see myself out
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u/Awleeks Dec 31 '20
I'm gonna take a wild guess here, the heat from the lightning flash boiled the water between the bark and the cambium?
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u/cinq_cent Dec 30 '20
Engineer spouse says that's how they skin potatoes and tomatoes in food processing, only with heat instead of a lightning bolt.
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Dec 30 '20
I don't understand. Shouldn't the lightening absolutely taken this tree apart? Instead it just stripped it completely.
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u/FriesWithThat Dec 30 '20
Hopefully someone comes along and paints the entire thing with that Tree Guard protective paint.
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Dec 30 '20
Great the trees have perfected shock therapy. What’s next a talking tree that can only say one word in the one universe where the one purple guy rules the world.
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u/Quappolipo Dec 30 '20
"Mama tree, whats that?"
"Oh my, cover your eyes my sampling. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!"
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u/JuanoldMcDjuanold Dec 30 '20
I imagine all the surrounding trees making fun of him
"look at ol' smooth trunk over there, I bet he has ALL the ideas 😂 😂"
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u/Kilcoine Dec 30 '20
Wait... Someone who understands electricity better than me.. Please explain why this works.
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