Does a video show lightning striking water? Fact Check

A video that shows a calm stretch of water exploding into violent splashing combined with an explosive boom claims to show what happens when lightning hits water.

The video, which has been spreading since 2017 and is below, shows a brief flash strike from what appears to be a lightning bolt followed by the water erupting. Many videos have circulated social media and YouTube claiming that the video depicts lightning striking water.

Despite the claims, however, this does not show lightning striking water. In fact, this video was originally posted onto YouTube in 2012 by Rannikon Merityo, a company that specialises in ”dredging, mining and beach construction”.

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In the video they originally published in 2012, titled Drilling Pole, Part 3: Blasting the company appears to be using a detonator. The description on the original video reads – “In this video, we deepen the waterway.”

As such, the video has nothing to do with lightning whatsoever. There are a number of videos that show what happens when lightning strikes water, and none of them match the description in the video above. Water is a conductor of lightning so the electrical current may spread along the surface of water for miles, but it does not cause an violent eruption as depicted here.