From PHIL NAYLOR
My attention has just been brought to the letters in the issues of 3 April
and 24 April concerning ‘blue flashes’. Some of us in the caving club here
at Loughborough have also seen the occurrence of crystalloluminescence, or
more probably triboluminescence, on some of our trips underground. The
following extract from the club newsletter The Mole (15 March) explains:
‘It was in this cave (Ogof Clogwyn, South Wales) too that David dished out
the Polo mints having told us to snap them close to our eyes. Lo and
behold, you see a flash of blue light (generally followed by hysterical
laughter).’
A considerable amount of discussion followed in an attempt to explain what
was happening, so Andrew Alexander and Gary Evans’s scientific
interpretation of our experience was particularly welcome.
Phil Naylor
Loughborough University
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