Can glass be made by lightning striking sand like in Sweet Home Alabama?
Lightning can form glass if the lightning is 18000 degrees Celsius when it strikes silica. It forms a tube and takes about 1 second. The resulting glass is called fulgurite. The longest one found was 16 feet long. Glass can also be formed naturally by meteorite impact and volcanic activity.
Fulgurites have been used as jewelry since ancient times. Fulgurites also tell the story of the land. The Sahara Desert had many fulgurites showing that there must have been many lightning storms over the Sahara Desert. In Scotland a 250 million year old fulgurite was found that shows Scotland had deserts at that time.
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| (image via: Cristales Curativos) |
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