Fact-Check: ‘When Lightning Hits Water’ Video

Posts featuring the following video are being shared via social media. The posts claim that the video shows lightning hitting the water in a river:

But, in fact, the video does not show a lightning strike at all. Instead, it depicts controlled blasting that was reportedly intended to deepen the waterway.

The original video, which was published on YouTube in December 2012, has the title “Porapaalutusta, osa 3: Räjäytys”. This translates to “Drilling rig, part 3: Blasting”. And the clip has the description “In this video, we deepen the waterway.”

The video was posted by Rannikon Merityo, a water engineering company based in Finland. The company’s website includes the video on its Mining page. The page includes the following description (Google translated from the original Finnish).

In addition, the deepening, construction and maintenance of waterways are carried out in mining and blasting operations. Extraction is carried out by placing underwater special explosives in the drilling holes, which are immersed in drilled holes in the rock.

And, in any case, as many commentators have pointed out, the blast clearly enters the water from the land beside the river bank and then travels down the waterway. It does not come from the sky as a lightning strike most likely would. Thus, even without the information from the original video posting, it is obvious that the event depicted is not a lightning strike.