How important is Nitrogen Fixation by Thunders/Lightnings?
At the beginning of the 20th century, a Norwegian engineer called Samuel Eyde founded the world’s first chemical fertilizer using the electrical energy of the waterfalls to fix nitrogen to limestone thus reproducing the effect of lighting. The factory was in the little village of Rjukan where my wife was born and grew up. Note that the same Norsk Hydro factory was also producing the heavy water that was destroyed by the Norwegian resistance in world war II as depicted by the Holywood movie “The Heroes of Telemark.” In the nature, lightning accounts for about 20 percent of nitrogen fixation that is needed for our biologic life on earth.
