# Lightning striking sand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746 "2003-02-08T19:34:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/1 "2003-02-08T19:34:04Z")
Does lightning create glass sculptures when it strikes sand? In the movie “Sweet Home Alabama” It shows these glass sculptures that look like little trees that were caused by lightning striking sand. I tried to find some more information on this online, but all I could find was information on [fulgurites](http://www.fossilsasart.com/lightning.html). These things are caused by lightning striking sand but they don’t look like glass at all, more like odd-shaped rocks. Does anyone know where I can find more information about this? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/2 "2003-02-08T19:39:25Z")
I don’t know where the movie got that idea, but it doesn’t happen that way. Although there is certainly enough heat from a lightning strike to fuse sand grains together to form the fulgurites you mentioned, there is not nearly enough to completely melt them together to form glass. ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/3 "2003-02-08T19:40:56Z")
Here’s what I did [[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=lightning+sand](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=lightning+sand)](google search) . Wow, fulgerites are cool!!! I want one. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/4 "2003-02-08T19:53:42Z")
I haven’t seen the movie. I did find this. [http://www.tellmewhereonearth.com/rocks\_pg\_3.htm](http://www.tellmewhereonearth.com/rocks_pg_3.htm) > [@](#): > > In the movie Sweet Home Alabama, the Deep South Glass is described as being made from fulgurites. The only way we can surmise this to be true (as the story never shows the process) is that fulgurites (such as you see below, which are often hollow, opaque, rough and fragile, being a rough form of glass) are collected from the beach as shown - attracting the lightning with the rods, so the specimens are pretty large, re-heated at high temperatures in a glass studio, and then hand blown into the sculptures and glassware you see in the movie. We are not aware of an actual studio that makes this glass for sale, though someone is bound to capitalize on the movie and produce something that they will connect with the Deep South Glass concept. In the movie, are they talking about collecting fulgurites and then melting them down and making them into little glass trees? I just looked through this whole website and I didn’t see anything that remotely resembled “little glass trees”. Some of the smaller, spindlier ones from West Texas are light-colored and _might_ look like individual tree branches, but IMO it’s quite a stretch. [http://www.minresco.com/fulgurites/fulgurites.htm](http://www.minresco.com/fulgurites/fulgurites.htm) Bear in mind that a fulgurite isn’t blown or spun pure glass, it’s just fused quartz. ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/5 "2003-02-08T19:54:56Z")
Opps my link doesn’t work sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/6 "2003-02-08T20:12:57Z")
Was the following your search URL, **cw**? [http://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+%2B+sand&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en](http://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+%2B+sand&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en) ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/7 "2003-02-08T20:17:05Z")
I actually have a fulgurite in my rock collection (they aren’t that expensive) and would describe it as being very fragile. I can’t imagine that you could base any type of glassware off of it. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/8 "2003-02-08T21:35:47Z")
At the beginning of the movie, it shows the girl and the guy when they are little, playing on the beach. It’s storming, and lightning strikes the sand. They go over and look to where the lightning struck. Fast-forward a few years. The guy now has a glass shop, and apparently he makes these glass sculptures by putting metal poles into the sand during a storm. They don’t say anything about melting the fulgurites and re-creating them, all that is said is “most people don’t know that lightning can do this to sand, all you have to do is dig it up”. I was just trying to figure out if lightning striking sand really makes sculptures like that, apparently it does not. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-striking-sand/153746/9 "2003-02-08T21:48:32Z")
I tried to find a picture of something similar to what was shown in the movie, but all I could come up with was [this](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3207036173&category=25426). I guess just imagine it as the glass branches without the birds on top. It resembles the glass sculptures from the movie.