Electrifying! This Unusual Lightning Looks Like a Dinosaur

A Facebook post showing a dinosaur-shaped lightning captured on camera by Hallie Larsen, a park ranger at the Petrified Forest National Park, has went viral.

It is no wonder that when the US Department of the Interior posted the image to its Facebook page on Wednesday, it gathered thousands of comments.

"Have you ever seen lightning make such crazy shapes?" the department asked.

Facebook users commented on what other of things they saw in the lightning photo aside from a dinosaur. Some said there was a half of a bear diving downward, a snake, Godzilla, a heart-shaped balloon and a cougar stalking its prey. Meanwhile, its Instagram version has nearly 30,000 likes as of press time, CNET reports.

Lightning always gives us two opposite feelings: terrifying but amazing. Terrifying because of fear that it will come and electrify us, and amazed because of how stunning it is to see those ragged lines of light against the dark, gloomy night.

But how exactly is lightning formed?

Lightning is a form of electricity. Ben Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm to prove this. Electricity is formed when cold air and warm air collide. As they collide, warm air goes up; thus, creating thunderstorm clouds. Cold air has ice crystals while warm air has water droplets.

During the storm, the droplets and crystals bump together and move apart in the air. This rubbing makes static electrical charges in the clouds, NASA explains.

Clouds have positive and negative charges. The positive charges are at the top while negative charges are found at the bottom. Once the charge at the bottom gets strong enough, the cloud lets out energy. This energy goes through the air and move to a place that has the opposite charge. A lightning bolt of energy will let out and it can go from the cloud to the ground or to another cloud. This lightning bolt of energy is called leader stroke. The main bolt or stroke will go back up to the cloud, make a flash of lightning, heat the air, spread quickly and make the sound we hear as thunder.