What does happen when lightning strikes the ground? It transforms the soil it hits into something unique and artistic!! The end result - Fulgurites
Fulgurite is scientific Latin for "lightning stone." Fulgurites are made when lightning strikes the ground. When a bolt strikes the ground, it vaporizes a thin wormhole and melts the zone around it, creating an instant froth of natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, or silica, or soil. These fulgurites can be up to several centimeters in diameter, and meters long, but they're quite fragile. Their color varies depending on the composition of the sand they formed in, ranging from black or tan to green or a translucent white. The interior is normally very smooth or lined with fine bubbles; the exterior is generally coated with rough sand particles and is porous. They are rootlike in appearance and often show branching or small holes. This process occurs over a period of around one second, and leaves evidence of the lightning path and its dispersion over the surface.
Finding one is quite rare!
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