Fireballs-Like Explosive Peroxides Produced by the Brown-rot Fungus

Fireballs are unusual and rare phenomena usually associated with thunderstorms, although sometimes they have been observed during earthquakes, volcano eruptions or in fair weather. There are still questions about their origination, features and interaction with the environment. In this work, a new model is shown to explain the formation of fireballs in fair weather from poplar cotton and peroxides produced by brown-rot fungi. Light emission is produced via thermal decomposition of 1,2- dioxetane phenylcoumarane or 1,2-dioxetane monolignol, from lignin inside the poplar fibers. The energy released during the explosive decaying of fireballs was calculated as being about 3 kilojoules for each gram. This value is the same order of magnitude as the estimated for the explosive fireballs decaying.