Lake Maracaibo
Lake Maracaibo is a large brackish lake in northwestern Venezuela. It turns up in What if all the lightning on Earth struck the same place at once? (xkcd’s What If?): It is the one real place the piece settles on as the real-world answer to the question, and gives the punchline.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| What if all the lightning on Earth struck the same place at once? | xkcd’s What If? | subject | After the world-wide lightning thought experiment is dismissed as impractical, the video turns to Lake Maracaibo, where thunderstorms form… |
What if all the lightning on Earth struck the same place at once? — xkcd’s What If? (2024)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
Near the southwestern edge of Lake Maracaibo,
- Role: subject
- In the video: After the world-wide lightning thought experiment is dismissed as impractical, the video turns to Lake Maracaibo, where thunderstorms form almost every night over the lake and over land to the west. It is called the lightning capital of the world, and the Catatumbo storms are used for a smaller hypothetical of channelling one night’s bolts into a capacitor. The closing joke places the always-struck spot in Venezuela.
- Why it matters: It is the one real place the piece settles on as the real-world answer to the question, and gives the punchline. Without it the piece would stay purely hypothetical.