By John Roach, contributor
On the Fourth of July, the United States celebrates its independence with picnics, parades and of course, fireworks such as these seen exploding above the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In honor of the holiday, we've cobbled together a collection of nature's best fireworks displays.
Click the \"Next\" button above to get an eyeful of red-hot volcanic eruptions, dazzling lightning storms, scorching forest fires and more. ";
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After thousands of years of dormancy, the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile erupted, blasting ash and dust 20 miles into the sky and sending nearby residents packing for safer pastures.
This image captures an electrical storm that broke out above and around the erupting volcano on May 2, 2008. The picture was taken by Carlos Guiterrez of Patagonia Press. It was voted the favorite image in msnbc.com's Year in Pictures collection.";
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Indonesia's Mount Merapi is one of the world's most active volcanoes, puffing smoke on most days of the year and occasionally erupting with explosive force. A series of eruptions in the spring of 2006, for example, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.
In this image, wind-whipped smoke, ash and lava spew from the mountain. ";
Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i++] = new Array("","Kilauea's long-running show","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Slideshows/_production/ss_080403_twip/ss-080403-twip-08.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Bruce Omori", "EPA", "273", "410", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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Thousands of people stream into the Hawaii Volcano National Park every day to watch the Kilauea volcano erupt. An incandescent glow of superheated fumes and steam streaming from the Halemaumau Crater occasionally delights the crowds, while along the fringes of the Big Island, viscous lava collides with the Pacific Ocean, creating giant clouds of steam, as seen in this image. The volcano has been continuously erupting since 1983, but its glow was recently snuffed out by a series of rock falls.";
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Scientists used a system called a Lightning Mapping Array to peer through the ash spewing from Alaska's Mount Redoubt to trace the lightning inside the plume. The data collected over the course of the volcanic eruptions will help researchers better understand the dynamics that cause the plume to become electrified, and let scientists watch how it evolves over time. ";
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Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i-1].body = "
An undersea volcano erupting near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean shoots smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet skyward. Scientists said the activity is from a cluster of 36 such undersea volcanoes.
\"This is not unusual for this area, and we expect this to happen here at any time,\" Keleti Mafi, the head of Tonga's geological service, told The Associated Press.";
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Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i-1].body = "
Few things spark as loud a chorus of oohs and aahs as a lightning storm viewed from a safe distance, such as this strike at golf course in California. But for people in a hurricane's path, an uptick in lightning activity could be a sign to flee, according to a growing body of research. Scientists recently found that lightning activity spiked about 36 hours before 2006's Cyclone Nargis intensified as it rushed ashore and killed an estimated 130,000 people in Myanmar. ";
Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i++] = new Array("","Fireflies light up summer nights","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/g-tdy-090609-fireflies-242p.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "", "ChiselVision / CORBIS Stock", "273", "390", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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Many a child has spent a summer night chasing — and capturing — fireflies, which are actually a species of flying beetles. The insects create their dazzling flashes in an attempt to attract a mate for the purposes of reproduction. Some scientists are concerned that fireflies around the world are encountering difficulty in this task, however. Firefly populations appear to be plummeting around the world, they say.";
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Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i-1].body = "
Wildflowers meadows high in the mountains are some of nature's best fireworks displays. Better yet, they are best enjoyed at the height of summer. Unlike low-elevation backyard flowers that bloom in the spring, alpine meadows are often covered in snow until early summer, meaning that their flowers burst into a riot of color just in time for that escape from the relentless city heat.
In this image, wildflowers pop in the foreground as Mount Rainier in Washington fills the horizon. ";
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On most nights of the year, dedicated sky watchers will catch a shooting star or two — which are actually space particles that vaporize when they hit Earth's atmosphere. On some nights, the shooting stars are so common one could mistake them for a fireworks display.
This Leonid meteor shower delighted visitors at the Great Wall of China on Nov. 18, 1998. ";
Tech_Nature_Fireworks[i++] = new Array("","Forest fires: The unwanted fireworks","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo/_new/ss-081014-wildfire-tease.hlarge.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "Dan Steinberg", "AP", "273", "591", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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Fourth of July firework displays usually spark traffic jams as people jockey for a good view of the show. Forest fires, on the other hand, can create traffic jams headed away from the flames, such as the people shown here fleeing a wind-fanned brushfire in the foothills of Los Angeles.
Public lands officials ask people to be extra cautious over the July 4 holiday to prevent wildfires — nature's fireworks of the unwanted kind.";
// END editorial data