Why Lightning Strikes Hit Christ the Redeemer Statue? Lightning Protection for Christ the Redeemer
- Aug 8, 2017
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 25
Christ the Redeemer Statue is a symbol of Rio de Janeiro and is one of the new seven wonders of the world. Statue is 38 meters tall including the 8 meter pedestal and nearly 28 meters wide, and located at the top of Corcouado Mountain. Unfortunately this iconic structure is one of the biggest targets to lightning strikes in Brazil with an average rate of at least 10 strikes per year!
Lightning strikes often damage the statue and last time it cost over 4million USD to repair the damaged fingers and the head. Considering that the statue is one of the eye-catching tourist attractions in Brazil, the cost of lightning damage increases during the renovation since it is closed to tourists.
Why is Christ the Redeemer Statue Hit by Lightning Strikes?
First of all, the statue is located on a rocky mountain where ground resistance is extremely high and this blocks lightning current move fast enough not to give any damage to structures. Lightning hits a point at the top of the structure and lightning current flows down to ground through the body of that structure. Simply to say; when the resistance at the bottom is high, current spends more time during its flow to ground and this delay makes the structure face the damaging effects of lightning current.
"Lightning Protection" for Christ the Redeemer Statue
The statue has a lightning protection system, but it does not solve the problem. Existing lightning protection solution is a set of lightning arresters (lightning rods) which are bonded to eachother by conductor cable and this conductor is connected to the grounding system at the bottom.
This is not the correct method to protect the statue from damaging lightning strikes because the structure is already a target of lightning and lightning arrester system attracts the strikes even more! Also, when the system “catches” the strikes, lightning current has to go down to ground through the shortest and most conductive way. In most cases, it's not the conductor cable, and current finds the surface of the statue as a better conductor, and moves through the body with damaging the structure.
Lightning must be kept away from Christ the Redeemer Statue.
EvoDis® Lightning Prevention System is the ONLY lightning protection solution that keeps lightning strikes AWAY from tall conductive metal structures. EvoDis® System dissipates the charges on the structure and make it “invisible” to lightning strikes. This process keeps the structures safe and free of lightning-related damages.
Replacing the existing lightning rods with EvoDis® Units can make
the Christ the Redeemer Statue invisible to lightning strikes.
EvoDis® System has a proven 100% success witjh high voltage laboratory test, field tests and thousands of applications. EvoDis® protects lightning prone towers worldwide and none of them have received any lightning strikes for the past 18+ years of application.
EvoDis® Lightning Prevention System provides the only lightning protection solution for tall conductive structures.
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