A Lightning-Struck Tree in Kern Canon. 



25 



A LIGHTNING-STRUCK TREE IN KERN CANON. 



By Willis Linn Jepson. 



At the southwestern margin of Little Kern Lake the debris 

 of a badly shattered sugar pine encumbers the little flat at 

 that point and excited the curiosity of many members of the 

 1912 Outing party. A first glance recalled windfall, but the 

 lay of the main portions of the trunk and branches contradicted 

 this suggestion, and an examination at once showed that the 

 tree had been struck by lightning, probably about three weeks 

 previously, as evidenced by the condition of the green leaves 

 and of the freshly splintered wood. A study of the wilderness 

 of debris seemed to indicate the following story of the tragedy, 

 of a Sugar Pine. 



The tree approximated one hundred and seventy-five feet in 

 height, of which the upper half was crown and the lower half 

 clear trunk. The trunk diameter was four and one -half 

 feet at a point four feet above the ground. The lightning 

 struck at or near the tip of the main axis. It sheared off the 

 bark from the wood in a strip four to six inches wide from a 

 point eight feet below the tip down the axis to the base of the 

 crown, making one complete spiral. Below the crown, in the 

 middle portion of the trunk, the lightning acted explosively 

 and blew out the trunk in about three longitudinal or radial 

 fragments, behaving in such a way as to suggest similarity to 

 the action of a charge of gunpowder. One of these fragments, 

 twenty-four feet long, was thrown to a distance of twenty-five 

 feet from the tree. Another one fell to the ground on the 

 southerly side of the stump, two of its portions, each twelve 

 feet long, being driven obliquiely into the ground to a depth of 

 two or three feet. The third portion of this log-like frag- 

 ment lay on the ground close by the south side of the stump. 

 It reached the ground before the crown came down. On ac- 

 count of the middle portion of the trunk being blown out in 

 this manner, the top or crown, weighing about eighteen tons, 

 was suddenly released in mid-air and came straight down. 



