Yeah, right.
I think that the problem in the uk field was pretty obvious when tested for and was a fluke as normally such things end in the circuit shorting out big time well before it gets to the state of being detectable. Brian
Translating the translated thicko journalistic interpretation of what the geobiologist:
This is France. They have some "interesting" wiring in regards equipotential bonding and/or bonding to real ground and a some what more "cavalier" attitude to electrical safety.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to find the return path for the photovoltaics to be using real ground by "accident". This causing a potential gradient across the ground and cows being quadropeds can get a significant voltage between fore and hind pairs of legs to which they are rather "sensistive". Hence why cows, not horses, sheep or other quadropeds are regulary killed in fields by nearby lighting strikes.
On a nature programme on the TV a few years ago, they showed film of a small herd of African elephants all dead, adults and calves. There were no signs of injury to the animals, and it was concluded that a lightning strike close by had killed them via the EMP or possibly just the shock wave (i.e. pressure wave). During the London blitz, blast from exploding bombs killed people nearby without leaving any external trace. I believe a London bus was caught like that, and the passengers were found sitting in their seats, apparently unharmed but quite dead. Perhaps all those masts regularly attract lightning.
As hooves are insulators (being made of keratin), why do horses not suffer from such lighting strikes more than cows? They often have nails driven into their hooves quite a way to hold their iron horseshoes on. You would expect much less insulation between the end of the nail and the conductive part of their body than in an animal which does not have shoes and nails.
Not all horse have shoes fitted, quite a number around here go barefoot.
The nails pass through the edge of the hoof and are cut/nailed over/filed flush on the top side. Think about it if the nail penetrated the actual foot in anyway it would be just a tad painful...
I didn't say it did penetrate that far. You snipped "You would expect much less insulation between the end of the nail and the conductive part of their body". The conductive part would be the living tissue. A careful farrier would try to avoid driving nails into the "quick".
Yes, unridden horses and those not used to pull carts, carriages, etc would not be shod. I would not expect many - if any - Dartmoor or New Forest ponies to be shod, and I would guess there are quite a few lightning strikes in those areas. It would be interesting to see how many ponies are killed by strikes in those areas.
just depressed by all those pointless windmills
Is fresh water a good conductor ?.
Answers on a PAT form, .. in triplicate.
I remmeber a fake science program on bad science where they reported that a nuclear reactor had spilled heavy water into the atmosphere and the resulting heavy rain flattened the local cows.
I guess they would be ;-)
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