• protist@mander.xyz
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    14 hours ago

    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

    • jnod4@lemmy.ca
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      12 hours ago

      Don’t they have four legs? The day I see a reindeer sitting on one leg I’m getting glasses

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        12 hours ago

        Yes, a reindeer standing on one leg would be unusual, and it’s the only way they could’ve survived this 😂

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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    19 hours ago

    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.”

    • AugustWest@lemm.ee
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      17 hours ago

      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.

      • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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        18 hours ago

        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.

          • superkret@feddit.org
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            2 hours ago

            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

          • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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            4 hours ago

            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.

        • virku@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          Lapland is in Finland. Hardangervidda is in Norway. It is flat as well though.

          • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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            4 hours ago

            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.

      • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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        18 hours ago

        Part of the problem is that we have two feet. When lightning strikes the ground nearby, it creates a difference in electric potential between the foot that’s closest to the impact point and the more distant one. If that potential is great enough, then an electric currect can jump through one’s shoe, go up into the body then down the other leg and back to ground.

        Laying down only increases the surface area in contact with the ground, so the best thing to do is get inside.

          • Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com
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            10 hours ago

            One Problem I could see with that is that your raised foot still needs to go somewhere. And if the resistance through the path up through your leg and to some part of your raised leg and then from there through the air back into the ground is lower than the one of the path through the ground from your lowered foot to the end of the aforementioned path then the lightning would still travel through your lower body.

          • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
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            18 hours ago

            Feet have non-zero surface area so there’s still room for an electric potential between the near and far side of the foot. It’d be smaller so that isn’t an entirely terrible idea, but it is by no means foolproof.

  • Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org
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    18 hours ago

    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

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    18 hours ago

    That’s what they get for never letting poor Rudolph join in any of their reindeer games

    • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      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.

  • kugel7c@feddit.org
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    18 hours ago

    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.