sand); in formed tubes glass hollow are
fulgurites (Lightning L'oeuf); from (tennis 4.
When lightening strikes sand, the heat sometimes fuses the sand into long, slender glass tubes called
fulgurites (ful-gu-rites).
When lightning strikes sand or sediment, the path followed by the bolt can fuse into a glassy tube called a
fulgurite.
Now, scientists are studying
fulgurites in Egypt to piece together a history of the region's climate.
[C.sub.60] has since been reported in meteorites, in soot at the K/T boundary, in carbonaceous tuff from Sudbury's Onaping Formation impact breccia, in
fulgurites, and in sediments at the Permian/Triassic boundary.
An hour earlier, while running for the car, it had occurred to me the at the scrub might be the perfect place to hunt for
fulgurites, those little tubes of fused sand formed by lightning when it hits the ground.
However, the lumps and tubes of glass that litter the region's shifting dunes are proof that lightning, the only source of
fulgurites, frequently touched down there in the past.
McCollum proposes that such split-second events persist in the world only through tangential documentation and chance residue, what he calls "literature." Thus, the first thing one saw on entering the gallery was not the
fulgurites themselves but a shelf of "Supplemental Didactics": sixty-six paper booklets, identically bound in drab tan.
They found some quite unusual
fulgurites (lightning-generated tubes of fused sand) as well as mineral specimens that were eye-catching.
Some, which resemble
fulgurites, are nearly a meter long, and are believed to have formed in worm burrows in a limey sediment.
In Soviet experiments reported in 1977, laboratory researchers used up to 12,000 volts to vaporize the inner walls of tubes of ice or plastic that served as models of
fulgurites. Once enough pressure built up in the tube to rupture a thin plastic diaphragm, brilliant balls up to 400 mm in diameter came flying out.
While it seemed a long shot, the team hit pay dirt after sampling glassy lightning-seared rocks - known as
fulgurites - from just five locations.