Vitrified Lightning Bolt

This remarkable natural sculpture was formed in one ten thousandth of a second, from the interaction of lightning with earth. Driven by electrical potential of around 1 billion volts, lightning heats the air to approximately 30,000 degrees Kelvin. If conditions are right, these “strikes” can melt the earth into a kind of impure glass called lechatelierite, more commonly known as fulgurite, from the Latin ‘fulgur’ (lightning).

Fulgurites contain a hollow internal glass tube, with a rough exterior which flares into spiky ridges and undulating channels. Sand grains can also be preserved, as with the present piece, and are a remnant of the instantaneous transformation of earth to glass. Owing to their rarity and the difficulty of excavation, fulgurites are usually only small, measuring just a few centimetres in length.

Length: 34.2 cm (13.5 inches)

Provenance:
– Recovered from Sahara Desert, Algeria, circa 2006.