The Lightning That Turns Sand Into Glass

A lightning strike can do something that sounds almost impossible.

It can turn sand into glass.

When lightning hits sandy ground, temperatures inside the electrical channel can become hotter than the surface of the Sun for a brief moment.

That enormous burst of energy can melt grains of sand almost instantly.

But the result isn't usually a smooth sheet of glass.

Instead, the lightning can leave behind a strange branching structure called a fulgurite.

It can look like a fragile glass tube buried beneath the ground.

And its shape can reveal something about the lightning that created it.

INTRO

Imagine a bolt of lightning striking a beach or sandy desert.

For a fraction of a second, the air around the electrical channel becomes unimaginably hot.

The surrounding sand doesn't have time to slowly heat up.

It melts.

Then the lightning disappears.

The molten material cools and solidifies, leaving behind a geological fingerprint of the strike.

That's a fulgurite.

And these strange formations are one of the most fascinating examples of electricity directly reshaping the Earth.

That's why fulgurites are sometimes described as "fossilized lightning."

They're not actually fossils.

But the comparison makes sense.

A fleeting event leaves a physical record behind.

You can't watch the lightning strike again.

But you can find the path it carved through the Earth long after the thunder is gone.

FINAL

The next time you see lightning strike a sandy landscape, remember what may be happening beneath the surface.

For an instant, ordinary grains of sand can become molten.

And when the lightning vanishes, part of its path can remain behind as glass.

A bolt of electricity from the sky can literally reshape the ground beneath it.

The lightning that turns sand into glass.

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