Lightning Makes Glass

 

Mother Nature makes glass each time a large amount of energy is released during a sufficient period of time at the Earth's surface, provided that the soil composition is suitable for making glass. The latter condition is satisfied, for example, by sandy soil, with the resultant natural glass being silica glass named "lechatelierite" after the French chemist Henry Le Châtelier (1850-1936).

 

There are two phenomena that are responsible for making natural glass on Earth: meteorites and lightning. Glass that is made as a result of the collision of a meteorite with the Earth's surface is called meteoritic glass or tektite. Glass (a glassy object, to be exact) that is made as a result of a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge is called a fulgurite (from the Latin "fulgur" which means lightning). Fulgurites come in a great variety of forms and can be viewed as nature's own works of art. It is worth noting that lechatelierite (natural silica glass) is not present in obsidian, a glass-like material associated with volcanic activity. On the other hand, volcanic activity is known to generate lightning which, if it strikes sandy soil, may produce a fulgurite.

 

Silica glass has been also made as a result of nuclear explosions. In 1945, the first nuclear bomb (equivalent to 18,000 tons of TNT) was detonated in the New Mexico desert. The explosion formed a crater 800 yards in diameter, glazed with a dull gray-green silica glass. This glass was named "trinitite" after Trinity Site where the first nuclear bomb test was conducted.

 

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