Lightning is famous for starting forest fires, making thunder that scares the family dog, and, rarely, striking a golfer who’s stuck out in a storm.

Not exactly a good reputation—so it might surprise you to know that lightning is essential to life on Earth.

Lightning forms when freezing water droplets fall through a cloud, carrying a small charge with them. Millions of falling drops eventually build up a negative charge at the bottom of the cloud.

When the charge becomes powerful enough, it slices through the air in a bolt of current, connecting to a positively charged area to neutralize it. This could be the ground below or, more often, the top of the cloud.

The bolt is just 1 inch wide and lasts one-fifth of a second. It travels at 200,000 miles per hour and heats the air around it hotter than the surface of the sun. This air expands very rapidly, and the shock wave is heard as thunder.

As lightning blasts through the atmosphere, it breaks apart nitrogen molecules. This allows them to combine with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen oxides. The rain dissolves these into nitrates, then carries them to Earth and into the soil.

Nitrates are the most easily absorbed form of nitrogen for plants, which require nitrogen to thrive.

And thriving plants are the base of the food web that all other creatures depend on.

Just another reminder that everything is interlinked on our amazing planet—and these connections can sometimes be shocking.