Glad You Asked: September 18, 2014

When I was a child, my family would often go camping in the summers. I would pick up various rocks and ask my dad what they were. “They’re called Leavarite, so you leave em’ right there.” While this is no “Leavarite,” it is something a lightning strike left behind. Most people have never seen it, and those who have may have never realized what it was at the time. This remnant is called a Fulgurite. Fulgurites are natural tubes or crusts of glass formed by the fusion of silica (quartz) sand or rock from a lightning strike. Their shape mimics the path of the lightning bolt as it disperses into the ground.

Read more about fulgurites in our Glad You Asked article HERE!