Are neutrons generated by lightning?

Abstract

The suggestion of L. M. Libby and H. R. Lukens that lightning-generated neutrons may explain secular anomalies in carbon dating has been tested in a simple manner by placing passive, integrating, particle track dosimeters close to controlled man-made discharges that closely simulate the high-temperature phases of natural lightning strikes. The limits on neutron production that have been set in these experiments (4·108 thermal neutrons per lightning flash and 7·1010 2.45-MeV neutrons) are several orders of magnitude lower than the levels needed to affect carbon dating or fission track dating over times that are geologically or archeologically significant.