Physics students at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), Thabang Ralitjobo and Mothepane Shale, have been playing detective with one of Lesotho’s biggest mysteries: a place called Lephakatlali. You might have heard stories from your grandparents. It’s a special spot on top of a mountain that lightning loves to strike, again and again. Some myths even claim traditional healers can “siphon” lightning there!
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Brought to you by NUL Innovation Hub [Where Academia Meets Industry] & MILCO [a store that sells only Lesotho products at Sefika Complex]. MILCO was founded by NUL Innovation Hub

Thabang and Mothepane wanted to find out: what’s the real science behind this? Is the ground different? Are the rocks special? So they packed their science tools and went to investigate.

They went to a Lephakatlali site on the Roma plateau.

The first thing they did was become mapmakers of lightning.

They divided the area into three zones, just like a target board: the bullseye (the centre where lightning hits most), the boundary, and the outside area further away.

“Think of it like figuring out the sweet spot on a soccer field where the ball always seems to land,” Thabang said.

Their main tools were cool:

1. A Digital Multimeter: This is like a doctor’s stethoscope, but for the ground. It has two probes that they stuck into the soil to “listen” to the earth’s electricity, measuring its voltage (electrical pressure) and resistance (how much it fights electricity).

2. A UV-Vis Spectrometer: This is a fancy light detective. It shines a beam of light through a material to see what colours of light it “eats” (absorbs) and what it lets through. This can tell you a lot about what something is made of.

So, what did they find? Let’s look at the clues.

Clue #1: The Ground’s Secret Electricity

When they measured the voltage in the ground, they found something exciting. The electrical pressure was highest right at the boundary of the circle.

“It was like the ground was most excited, most charged up, at the edges of Lephakatlali,” Mothepane explained.

And the resistance? It was lower inside the circle. Remember, low resistance means electricity can flow more easily. So, it seems the ground inside Lephakatlali makes it easier for a lightning bolt to travel through it. It’s like the ground is saying to the lightning, “Come on down, the path is clear!”

Clue #2: The Rocks that Got Zapped

The most obvious clue was on the rocks themselves. Right in the centre, they found rocks with a dark, glassy coating.

“This is called fulgurite,” Thabang said. “It’s like a fossil of a lightning strike. When the bolt hits, it’s so incredibly hot that it instantly melts the rock, and then it cools into this glassy skin. It’s the ultimate proof that this spot has been struck…a lot!”

They collected these rocks, along with other types from the area; dolomite, sandstone, and granite…and took them back to the lab.

Clue #3: The Light Detective’s Report

Back in the lab, they became chefs for their light detective machine. They crushed the rocks into a fine powder, mixed them with water, and let the UV-Vis spectrometer analyse them.

The machine showed them how each rock interacted with light. The fulgurite-coated rocks had a different “light signature” than the normal rocks. They absorbed less light, meaning the lightning strike had fundamentally changed the rock’s structure, turning it into a new, glassy material.

By comparing all the graphs, they could see the unique fingerprint the lightning left behind.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Thabang and Mothepane’s detective work proved that Lephakatlali isn’t just a story. It’s a real place with unique physical properties.

The ground there is primed for lightning; it has higher electrical pressure at its edges and offers less resistance to an incoming bolt. The rocks bear the permanent scars of these powerful strikes in the form of fulgurite glass.

They even found other similar sites in Mohale’s Hoek, showing that Lephakatlali might be more common than we think!

Their work is just the beginning. They dream of future studies that could measure the magnetic field or even test if Lephakatlali could act as a natural battery.

“Imagine,” Thabang said, “if we could one day understand lightning so well that we could safely capture some of its immense power. That’s the future we’re curious about.”

For now, they’ve mixed old Basotho stories with modern science tools, creating a new recipe for understanding the shocking secrets of our mountains.
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Brought to you by NUL Innovation Hub [Where Academia Meets Industry] & MILCO [a store that sells only Lesotho products at Sefika Complex]. MILCO was founded by NUL Innovation Hub