Hurricane Irma 2017: Relationships with Lightning, Gravity, and Earthquakes

Bruce Leybourne

Hurricane Irma, 2017, along with other storm systems (Fig. 1) howling winds and grounding lightning (Fig. 2), tracked Caribbean mantle circuits along the tectonic trenches of Puerto Rico and Cuba. Mantle circuit trends can be mapped with mantle gravity signatures (Fig. 3). Irma turned north from Cuba making south Florida landfall, 30 miles southeast of Ft. Meyers, precisely where concentration of lightning hotspot activity shifted to in 2016 [2]. Previously the North American lightning hotspot was located in the Tampa Bay region. This lightning shift to Ft. Meyers correlates to a global shift of lighting activity from the African Congo to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Our research indicates the shift in lighting activity signals a charging phase of the East Pacific Rise (EPR)… the Earth’s largest mantle circuit [3]. This circuit grounds and modulates lighting activity to the South Pole. EPR mantle circuits activate in phase with increases in Venezuelan and Florida lightning as well as a seismic activation [4] of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The Southeast Indian Ridge mantle circuit provides the South Polar grounding link to lighting activity in the Congo. Solar magnetic space weather activates Stellar Transformer mantle induction circuits during large variations in magnetism. This episodic activation modulates hurricane frequency, lightning hotspot activity influences earthquake and volcanic activity and has links to certain types of wildfire outbreak [5].

[2] Albrecht, R. I., S. J. Goodman, D. E. Buechler, R. J. Blakeslee, and H. J. Christian, Where are the lightning hotspots on Earth?, Bulletin American Meteorology Soc. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00193.1, 2016. See News Article @: www.northcollierfire.com/wpcontent/ uploads/2016/05/Latest-News-Lightning-Capital-of- US.pdf

[3] Leybourne, B.A., James ‘Mick’ Davis, Giovanni P. Gregori, John M. Quinn, and N. Christian Smoot, Evolution of Earth as a Stellar Transformer, New Concepts in Global Tectonics Journal, V. 5, No. 1, March 2017, pp. 144-155. See: www.iascc.org/the-science.

[4] Walker, D.A., More evidence indicates link between El Ninos and seismicity. EOS Trans. AGU. 76 (33) 1995.

[5] Leybourne, B.A., A. Haas, B. Orr, N.S. Smoot, I. Bhat, D. Lewis, G. Gregori, Electrical wildfire propagation along geomagnetic anomalies, The 8th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, FL., (July 18-24) 2004, pp. 298.

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