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The idea of ‘frozen-in’ magnetic field lines for ideal plasmas is useful to explain diverse astrophysical phenomena, for example the shedding of excess angular momentum from protostars by twisting of field lines frozen into the interstellar medium. Frozen-in field lines, however, preclude the rapid changes in magnetic topology observed at high conductivities, as in solar flares^,. Microphysical plasma processes are a proposed explanation of the observed high rates^,,, but it is an open question whether such processes can rapidly reconnect astrophysical flux structures much greater in extent than several thousand ion gyroradii. An alternative explanation^, is that turbulent Richardson advection brings field lines implosively together from distances far apart to separations of the order of gyroradii. Here we report an analysis of a simulation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence at high conductivity that exhibits Richardson …