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In 2016, over 300 wild reindeer were killed by a single lightning strike on the Hardangervidda plateau in Norway
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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Lightning is one of those things that makes it easy to see why people invented Gods to explain the phenomena.
How many survived? How big was this herd? That's pretty insane, no matter how you cut it
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.
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My god the smell
Poor creatures. That’s Norway to go.
Damnit Thor
He does love murder
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?
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
I did, and I suppose you did as well which would have shown you what I meant and the differences between the Lapland of Finland and the general Sápmi region which is not often referred to as Lapland any more.
I hope you put more effort and nuance into discussions you have elsewhere!
Idk man. They're completely in the right. I've never heard of anyone thinking Lapland is solely Finnish?
Even the Finnish Wiki doesn't think that.
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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
Don't they have four legs? The day I see a reindeer sitting on one leg I'm getting glasses
Yes, a reindeer standing on one leg would be unusual, and it's the only way they could've survived this 😂
Also if it were hovering
If only they all jumped right at the same time.
Oh deer
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
Cernunnos descent failed.
That's what they get for never letting poor Rudolph join in any of their reindeer games
Thor got drunk and decided he needed a steak
What kind of ritual were they doing
The one that seals the elder Gods into a soul cage for 1000 years.
Sadly, the humans will never understand the necessity and impact of the caribou's sacrifice.
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Incidentally the plateau is a great hiking spot, it's obviously beautiful, not particularly overrun (compared to the Alps it's almost comically empty), there are reasonably many dnt huts - typically self service -, and free camping is explicitly allowed in Norway.
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