There are few things more beautiful - or terrifying - than the menacing flash of lightning bolts within a volcanic ash cloud . The latests picture , captured by an amateur photographer as the Colima volcano in Mexico spews out a plume of ash and lava , reveals the raw power of a volcanic eruption . Hernando Rivera Cervantes took the pictures as local authorities warned those living around the volcano , which is also known as the Fire volcano , to prepare for a possible evacuation . Lightning strikes inside the enormous ash cloud thrown into the air by the Colima volcano ( above ) in Mexico . The 12,400 feet ( 3,800 metre ) high volcano , which first erupted in 1576 , is one of the most active volcanoes in Mexico . Mr Cervantes spent eight hours watching the volcano as it threw ash up to 1.8 miles ( three kilometres ) into the atmosphere before managing to capture the rare picture . He said : ' I waited for eight hours , knowing something was going to happen . When the lightning arrived it was magical . An unforgettable experience . ' These blots of lightning are thought to occur due to the build up of electric charge in the ash cloud as the particles rub against each other . Just like in a thunder cloud , this charge eventually builds up until it seeks a path through to the ground as lightning . This sequence of images captured by photographer Hernando Rivera Cervantes show the lightning flashes as the Colima volcano erupted . Mr Cervantes also managed to capture this night-time image above of lava spilling from the erupting volcano . Small volcanic eruptions over the past 20 years have been protecting the Earth from global warming , according to a recent study . Scientists have confirmed that droplets of sulphur-rich aerosols spewed into the upper atmosphere by volcanoes have been reflecting sunlight away from the Earth . Until recently it was thought that only particularly large eruptions had any noticeable affect on the climate . However , a study published earlier this year has confirmed results from the end of last year that showed these small eruptions can have an accumulative impact on global temperature . This could have helped decrease the global temperatures by between 0.05°C to 0.12°C over the past 15 years . Earlier this month scientists discovered that it is this lightning that is responsible for making the glass spheres that can appear in volcanic rocks . They found that the intense heat generated by the lightning bolts causes the ash to melt into spherules of smooth glass . A bolt of volcanic lighting can heat the surrounding air to more than 3,000°C , according to the researchers from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa . Dr Kimberly Genareau , a volcanologist at the University of Alabama , said their findings suggested that the role lightning plays in volcanic eruptions may be under reported . Writing in the journal Geology , she said : 'We refer to this new morphological classification of ash grains as lightning-induced volcanic spherules ( LIVS ) . 'Observation of LIVS in tephras ( volcanic rocks ) will provide evidence of lightning occurrence during eruptions where lightning was not directly observed or documented . ' The Colima volcano is actually one of three volcanic domes that make up the Colima Volcanic complex in the Mexican state of Colima , 301 miles west of Mexico City . It has erupted around 40 times since its first recorded activity in 1576 . There are now around 300,000 people living in it shadow . The volcano has a history of large and explosive eruptions , which has meant it is also one of the most studied volcanoes in Mexico . Although lightning in volcanic ash clouds has been observed for a long time , scientists have only recently begun to understand what causes it . The Colima volcano is regarded as one of the most dangerous in Mexico due to its large explosive eruptions . Mr Cervantes ( shown above ) spent eight hours waiting to capture his stunning images of the Colima volcano . Getting close enough to an erupting volcano is dangerous , so scientists at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich recreated volcanic lightning in a lab . In 2013 they suspended volcanic ash gathered from sites around the world in a chamber filled with argon gas , forcing the concoction through a narrow tube . They found that the movement of ash particles against each other as they go from the compressed environment under the Earth 's surface into the atmosphere during an eruption causes a built of up static charge . When the ash reaches the atmosphere , the energy is discharged as lightning bolts .
Lightning flash spotted in the ash cloud of the Hernando Rivera Cervantes which is 301 miles west of Mexico City . Strikes caused by high levels of electric charge building up as ash particles rub together . Bolts can heat surrounding air to 3,000°C and melt ash in the cloud into glassy spheres , scientists discovered .