Incredible picture captures a accurate second lightning struck an erupting volcano

A striking engineer camped out in freezing cold conditions to snap a shot of an erupting volcano – usually for a volcanic lightning bolt to strike the lava emanate and make the image even better.

Hernando Rivera braved the weather while sat conflicting the famous Volcán de Colima in central Mexico.

The photographer took adult the perfect vantage indicate 12km from the centuries-old volcano, that is currently active and surrounded by an 8km exclusion zone.

His overwhelming array of pictures, taken last week show white-hot lava rising from the crater 12,500ft above sea level, with the lightning shaft rising from clouds of black smoke.

Hernando, 34, said: ‘When the volcano erupts, it sounds like a big bomb. It can be dangerous being so close, though especially we are excited rather than scared.

‘In these pictures, Volcán de Colima is erupting with white lava bombs, while at the same time it is being hit by some lightning.

‘I was alone at night when we took them. we like to go alone. Sometimes we get as close as 7km or 5km, but on this occasion I was 12km away.

‘When I take the pictures, my reaction is one of complacency and smiles, because they look spectacular.

‘The lightning is caused by friction within particles. They are too prohibited and crash, formulating static, and this kind of materialisation leads to lightning.

‘Of course it is tough to constraint such an image, because we need to wait many hours and stay watching and ready all the time.

‘With low temperatures between 0 and 10 degrees, in the dark, it can be difficult on the hills.’

Hernando, who lives with his parent Sophey and their dual French bulldogs, is creatively from Mexico City, but now lives in Colima.

Volcán de Colima, which straddles the states of Colima and Jalisco, forms part of the Eje Volcánico Transversal towering range, and is one of a many active volcanoes in Mexico.

It first erupted in 1576 and is flanked by another volcano, Nevado de Colima, and the eroded El Cantaro, now extinct.

Volcanic lightning is caused when electrical charge is generated by colliding rock, ash or ice. It doesn’t strike from the sky, it comes instead from the black clouds or ash plumes that form when a volcano erupts.

The weather phenomenon is often referred to as a ‘dirty thunderstorm’.

Hernando said: ‘I’m a graphic designer and photographer for supervision in Colima, but we do a lot of freelance photography as well.

‘This is a particularly large eruption. It got intense. It happened during around 10pm. We like how starry the sky is. What more can we ask for?

‘I have to be attentive when I’m there. I take a few photos and go behind to waiting. There are some photographers who take thousands of cinema looking for ‘the one’. But we prefer to hunt them down.’

Source: Metro