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The Science of Halloween: Will o’ the Wisps
“About, about in reel and rout, / The death-fires danced at night; / The water, like a witch’s oil, / Burnt green, and blue and white,” writes Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He’s describing an elusive natural phenomenon commonly known as the Will o’ the Wisps, or ignis fatuus (“foolish fire” in medieval Latin). Will o’ the Wisps have been part of European folklore since the middle ages—Newton even mentioned them in Opticks—and they’re reported to be balls of ghostly glowing flames that appear over marshes or swamps at night, leading travellers astray from the path and into treacherous areas. They’ve been attributed to mischevious fairies, malevolent spirits, ghosts, aliens, the hinkypunks of Harry Potter—but there are fascinating rational explanations too, including bioluminesence, ball lightning, and bright animals. The most likely explanation, however, is that Will o’ the Wisps are actually the spontaneous combustion of marsh gases—basically, methane. Marshes and swamps are rich with rotting vegetation, which produce methane and phosphoretted hydrogen, which also carries the vapour of liquid hydrogen phosphide that triggers the spontaneous combustion. The mixture then bubbles up through mud and ignites, or ‘luminously oxidises,’ creating an eerie-looking, low-temperature flame.

have you heard the tale of the werewolves and the will o’ the wisps? it’s a good Halloween story!
Note: these are werewolves of old legend not the high-on-muscle, low-on-believable-dialog types that can’t seem to keep clothing on their body.

The Science of Halloween: Will o’ the Wisps

“About, about in reel and rout, / The death-fires danced at night; / The water, like a witch’s oil, / Burnt green, and blue and white,” writes Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He’s describing an elusive natural phenomenon commonly known as the Will o’ the Wisps, or ignis fatuus (“foolish fire” in medieval Latin). Will o’ the Wisps have been part of European folklore since the middle ages—Newton even mentioned them in Opticks—and they’re reported to be balls of ghostly glowing flames that appear over marshes or swamps at night, leading travellers astray from the path and into treacherous areas. They’ve been attributed to mischevious fairies, malevolent spirits, ghosts, aliens, the hinkypunks of Harry Potter—but there are fascinating rational explanations too, including bioluminesence, ball lightning, and bright animals. The most likely explanation, however, is that Will o’ the Wisps are actually the spontaneous combustion of marsh gases—basically, methane. Marshes and swamps are rich with rotting vegetation, which produce methane and phosphoretted hydrogen, which also carries the vapour of liquid hydrogen phosphide that triggers the spontaneous combustion. The mixture then bubbles up through mud and ignites, or ‘luminously oxidises,’ creating an eerie-looking, low-temperature flame.

have you heard the tale of the werewolves and the will o’ the wisps? it’s a good Halloween story!

Note: these are werewolves of old legend not the high-on-muscle, low-on-believable-dialog types that can’t seem to keep clothing on their body.