✨ What makes fulgurite special?
- It is not an ordinary crystal: the heat of lightning melts the sand so quickly that, as it cools, the material does not have time to form an orderly crystal lattice. Therefore, mineralogically, fulgurite is a natural a glass composed primarily of silicon dioxide.
- Its shape follows the path of the electrical discharge: fulgurites are usually hollow, tubular, and branching. The main channel may divide into thinner branches, like lightning roots frozen beneath the ground.
- The exterior and interior look completely different: the outer surface is often rough, porous, and covered with adhering grains of unmelted sand, while the inner wall is smoother, shinier, and more distinctly glasslike.
