What will happen if a live (electric) wire is directly touched to sea/ocean?
814188
No matter how great the voltage or electrical source, the current will pass through the water through the path of least resistence to find ground...\n\nNo fish will die, even if the path is through them, since they will only act as a conductor and not direct path to ground...\n\nTo test this, You and a friend should work together...  Hold hands.  Only of you acheive a static charge, like dragging your feet on the carpet, and then the other while you are holding hand hould touch a door knob (grounded object)...  Only the person touching ground will get the shock, even though the electricity passed though you both...\n\nFlying Airplanes get struck by lightening all the time, but they seldom have any electrical issues and since they are not grounded, the passengers don't feel a thing...  It's kinda scary, but it's cool too.
248658
static grounding I believe
215901
Of course it can. Boats are often struck. That is why being on a boat on the open water is so dangerous in a lightning storm. Lightning also strikes the sea surface many times per year. \n\nThe reference contains a picture of lightning striking the ocean off the coast of Florida, and a map of lightning strikes showing many over the oceans.
738402
Attach a bare wire to each terminal and dip the ends of both in salty water. Bubbles will form near the wires as the electricity breaks the water and salt molecules into their constituent gaseous elements. \n\nBy the way, with salty water you will get hydrogen and chlorine, but not oxygen. The salt is needed to make the water conduct electricity, but it also prevents you from getting oxygen gas from the water. You can do this experiment without the salt, but you will need WAY more than 9 volts. In that case you would get oxygen.
1184308
the surrounding area that is hit is temporaily electrified (no more than a second or so) this is due to the fact that the sheer size of the ocean, and the fact that water dicipates electricity so quickly.  There really isn't any thing out of the ordinary cept the poor fish that was caught in the affected area might be floating.
373398
The high current wires carry only one of the two poles (positive and negative) of current. The other pole travels through the earth. Therefore, birds and also humans will not get a shock as long as they touch only one wire. Birds are very small and there is little risk that they touch anything else. Humans, at the contrary, easily can touch the wire and the metal mast carrying the wires, in which case the second pole of the current, travelling through the ground, reaches the body together with the one travelling through the wire and originates the shock.
456654
For the three contacts in a plug which are detailed below.\n\nLive\nThe live contact carries alternating current. The voltage varies by country, as set by national regulations and industry standards. In a few cases (older installations in Scandinavian countries, the outputs of British 110 V building site isolation transformers and probably a few other cases) both main conductors may be live, either being two phases from a three-phase system or being from a single-phase transformer with centre-tapped output. Some plug/socket combinations are designed in a way that a plug can be inserted only one possible way — this is referred to as a polarised plug (not to be confused with positive and negative polarity). Others allow the plug to be inserted with live and neutral either way round — this is referred to as an unpolarised plug. Furthermore even if live and neutral can only mate one way round it may be common to wire them without regard for which is which.\n\n\nNeutral\nThe neutral contact is in most (but not all) cases referenced to the earth. Except under fault conditions it generally does not pose a danger, but is nevertheless treated as live in most installation practices.\n\nThe main danger that can be posed by the neutral is it has a non-null voltage (possibly as high as the voltage on the mains line) after a broken neutral cable in the wiring. Neutral and earth (ground) are strongly related (see Ground (power)) and are usually connected at some point. However extra connections between the Neutral and the Ground must not be made unless the relevant jurisdiction's regulations allow it.\n\n\nEarth\nThe earth contact is only intended to carry current when connected to equipment that has developed an insulation fault (except for EMI/RFI filters which do cause a small current down the earth). If a bare live wire or live component in a device gets loose and touches the metal casing of the appliance, somebody touching the case may receive an electric shock. In many countries devices with metal cases must have the case connected to the ground connection. This reduces but does not eliminate the voltage present on the case relative to earth and metalwork connected to the earthing system.\n\nWhen the neutral is directly connected to the earth as part of the wiring system (a TN system) a fault to earth is a short circuit and therefore provided the wiring is done correctly the circuit breaker will open, or the fuse will blow. In the case of an indirect connection (via the body of the earth) between the earth and the neutral (a TT system) the resistance of the path is much higher and therefore a residual-current device (RCD) must normally be used to disconnect the fault.\n\nThe neutral core could in theory be used as a ground, but this would be dangerous if the core broke, so this is not normally used in building wiring or portable appliances. It is, however, used in some other situations with special precautions. For instance, in Switzerland, sockets in houses with the old two wire installation have the ground and neutral contacts connected together, probably supposing, that the professionally maintained house installation is much more reliable than plugged-in device. Also using the neutral as a ground prevents the use of RCDs.
181491
It takes a very high voltage.  The earth is a conductor, but still has substantial resistance.  A high voltage source is connected: one terminal to the wire, one terminal to a metal stake in the ground.  When an animal touches the wire with its feet on the earth, current flows down the wire, into the skin of the animal, through the body down to the feet, through the feet into the earth, through the moist earth back to the metal stake, from the metal stake back into the power source ,completing the cicuit.  \n   Relatively low current, but high voltage gives a shock.
210194
When a bird stands on the wire, there is no path for the electricity, since the bird is not touching the ground or any other different item. If you touched a wire, you would get electrocuted because you are touching the ground as well.
1112560
no....human bodies carry electric current very well and when you touch something with too much static, it goes thru that point in your body, and out another (into the earth). You're basically the earthing-wire.
1132815
This is taken from an article I used with my earth science students.\n\nOver 1,000 people get struck by lightning every year in the United States, and over 100 of them die as a result of the strike. Lightning is not something to toy with. \nIf you are caught outside in a storm, always look for appropriate shelter. Do not take any chances -- lightning can use you as a path to the earth just as easily as it can use any other object. Appropriate shelter would be a building or a car. If you do not have anywhere to go, then you should avoid taking shelter under trees. Trees attract lightning. Put your feet as close together as possible and crouch down with your head as low as possible without touching the ground. \n\nNever lay down on the ground. After lightning strikes the ground, there is an electric potential that radiates outward from the point of contact. If your body is in this area, current can flow through you. You never want the current to have the ability to pass through your body. This could cause cardiac arrest, not to mention other organ damage and burns. By making your body as low to the ground as possible and minimizing the amount of your body in contact with the ground, you can lower the possibility of a lightning-related injury. If a strike were to occur near you, the current would have a much more difficult time flowing through your body in this position. \n\nIf you are indoors, stay off the phone. If you must call someone, use a cordless phone or cell phone. If lightning strikes the phone line, the strike will travel to every phone on the line (and potentially to you if you are holding the phone). \n\nStay away from plumbing pipes (bath tub, shower). Lightning has the ability to strike a house or near a house and impart an electrical charge to the metal pipes used for plumbing. This threat is not as great as it used to be, because PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is often used for indoor plumbing these days. If you are not sure what your pipes are made of, wait it out.\n\nA couple of misconceptions:\nRubber tires keep you safe in a car because they do not conduct electricity.\nNope. In strong electric fields, rubber tires actually become more conductive than insulating. The reason you are safe in a car is because the lightning will travel around the surface of the vehicle and then go to ground. This occurs because the vehicle acts like a Faraday cage. Michael Faraday, a British physicist, discovered that a metal cage would shield objects within the cage when a high potential discharge hit the cage. The metal, being a good conductor, would direct the current around the objects and discharge it safely to the ground. This process of shielding is widely used today to protect the electrostatic sensitive integrated circuits in the electronics world. \n\nThe tallest objects in a storm always get struck by lightning.\nIt's true that taller objects are closer to the clouds, but as discussed previously, lightning can strike the ground at a close distance to a tall object. Taller objects may have a higher possibility of a strike, but where lightning is concerned, the strike path is not predictable.
214117
Electricity of any kind, including that generating lightning, is caused by a potential difference in charge between two object-in this case, between the water in the ocean and the storm, which generates ionic imbalance.  The lightning transfers charge from one to the other, equalizing it.  Thus, the charge from the lightning disperses into the water-within a few 10s of feet of the strike, even a large lightning bolt will have dispersed the electrical charge sufficiently that it would not kill fish.  Seawater, though a good conducter, in this case is not conducting the electricity anywhere-it is the terminal acceptor of electical charge.
941024
Methane gas can create large bubbles that can bring down ships and low flying planes.  Rogue waves up to 100 feet have also been documented in that area which can sink ships.  Also, and you can do some research on this,  the earth's magnetic field is changing greatly in many places all over the world, and this can interfere with instruments.  We have found some ships and planes, but not all.  I don't think we have the technology yet to send robots by themselves under the ocean. If we did, we wouldn't still be using those little unmanned research subs that are connected to ships.  Perhaps we can do it, but it's too expensive for now.
680198
Your concept of the linesman is correct, however, being immersed in a body of water is dangerous.  Lightning carries a far greater potential than that of what the linesman faces.  True, there is no conduction of current to ground, but the copter and the line must be equalized before contact can be made.  This is because of the state of "STATIC ELECTRICITY".  Energy that is "Static" is not moving.  Nevertheless, when it comes in contact with another object, one who's energy level is at a different potential, the energy no longer remains static.  The sudden rush of current will be felt.  That's why when you cross the rug and grab the door knob you get a shock.  You have a significantly higher potential than the door knob and when you touch it there is a rush of energy trying to equalize the differences.\n\nBeing in a pool at essentially zero volts and a crack of lightning hits close by, the ground and the water in the pool will charge up before dissipating the lightning strike, possibly leaving you dead.  Wouldn't that ruin your day?\n\nDuring lightning storms stay out of the pool or the tub, do not be running the sink and stay off the phone (cordless phones do not apply in this case as there is no direct wiring to the outside world).  There have been documented cases where persons on the phone have been struck in the head by lightning, again it's due to that equalization of energy levels thing.\n\nHey, even if everyone is wrong, wanna risk your life?  You could die in a tub if someone dropped something electrical in the water.  True, your assumption is that water conducts better than the human body, but that is a wrong assumption.  Pure water is an insulator.  It's the impurity in water that makes it conduct.  Our bodies are actually much better conductors of electricity.  Don't believe me?  Ask someone like an electric shop teacher.\n\nI hesitate to give you a test to try because of the danger of electrocution, but if I were at your house I could demonstrate in a matter of seconds that what I am saying is true.  But for the sake of not causing someone to try a potentially dangerous experiment I'll not be specific.\n\nHowever, if you must know, e-mail me and we can chat.  When I am confident of your ability to conduct the test safely then I will tell you how to do this.
12356
Sounds like static electricty, which tends to develop in windy dry conditions.  Check it out.
370125
you are almost right, electrical ground is allways relative to a higer potential source like a live wire and the current flows toward ground from the higer source, when you ar isolated (you have rubber shoes, you have a high resistance in the way of the current), there still a current flow, but it is so small (nano amperes) that you body cant feel it
36631
B. the current will increase