Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Typical broken fulgurite sections. Fulgurites (from Latin fulgur 'lightning' and -ite), commonly called "fossilized lightning", are natural tubes, clumps, or masses of sintered, vitrified, or fused soil, sand, rock, organic debris and other sediments that sometimes form when lightning discharges into ground.
A lightning strike can also create a large Lichtenberg figure in grass surrounding the point struck. These are sometimes found on golf courses or in grassy meadows. [12] Branching root-shaped "fulgurite" mineral deposits may also be created as sand and soil are fused into glassy tubes by the intense heat of the current.
Vitrified sand is a type of natural glass, contrasted with manufactured glass in which soda ash or potash are added to lower the melting point. Pure quartz melts at 1,650 °C (3,002 °F). There are several natural processes that produce more or less melted sand and one man-made form: Fulgurite is sand fused by a lightning bolt hitting sand.
Vitrification of quartz can also occur when lightning strikes sand, forming hollow, branching rootlike structures called fulgurites. [18] Trinitite is a glassy residue formed from the desert floor sand at the Trinity nuclear bomb test site. [19]
Not all lightning hits the ground; most of it stays within the clouds. When it does reach the ground, it travels at around 200,000 miles per hour. And for a brief moment, it heats the air around ...
Sand will fuse into glass if it is close enough to the nuclear fireball to be drawn into it, and is thus heated to the necessary temperatures to do so; this is known as trinitite. [39] At the explosion of nuclear bombs lightning discharges sometimes occur. [40] Smoke trails are often seen in photographs of nuclear explosions.
Being hit directly by a lightning bolt and becoming part of the main channel of electricity flowing from the cloud to the ground is one of the least common ways to be struck by lightning, Dr. Mary ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!