Station: [34] N – Natural Glass: Fulgurite

Sprecher

This bizarre glass exhibit was created without human intervention. It’s described as Fulgurite, or lightning tubes and is derived from the Latin, „fulgur“, meaning the flash. It was found in the Rebiana Sand Sea in Libya. As the name and source suggest, tube-shaped Fulgurite like this is created when lightning strikes the sand seas or sandy deserts. The rapid cooling of the high temperatures of up to 30.000 degrees Celsius created when lightning strikes, is the decisive factor in the process, because it causes the tubes to vitrify. Fulgurite is just 2 centimetres wide on average, but can be several metres long.