[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Earl R. Verbeek]

Hi Larry,

Well, there are legitimate "cultured" fulgurites too, and I remember
reading through a web site about a group in Florida that makes them. 
They're above-board, selling them for what they are.  And what a neat idea!
 I forget the exact mechanics, but they prepare a target bed of sand, wait
for a storm, and then (this is the part that's fuzzy in my mind) they fire
a little rocket to carry a long wire up into the air, and WHAM! the
lightning strikes the wire and follows the wire down to the target area. 
Neat trick.  And the fun part is that you can select anything you like for
the target -- if you want a zircon fulgurite, go right ahead.  Just buy a
50-lb sack of zircon sand and go for it.

So, are these fulgurites?  Sure.  They bear the same relation to natural
fulgurites as synthetic ruby does to natural rubies:  they're both ruby,
just one natural and one made in a lab.  Same thing here, I think, with the
fulgurites

          Cheers-   Earl

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:05:15 -0400,  Larry Rush wrote:
> Bob: Fulgurites are hard to find. The best way is to see precisely where
a 
> lightning strike has taken place, and look over the surface there (after
> the 
> storm!). The bolt may follow a tree trunk into the ground, too. Since you

> live in NJ, the beach is a good spot to look after a strong lightning
> storm. 
> The quartz beach sand will be fused into tubular, twisting forms at and 
> under the beach surface, sometimes for relatively long distances into the

> surface depending on the strength of the strike. I have heard of people
> also 
> finding them at the site of car crashes, where a car has struck and
> knocked 
> down the power poles and where the live wires have sparked against the
> dirt 
> and gravel on the roadside. Are these Fulgurites??? Some are sold as
such,
> 
> even if they are not formed by lightning. I have also heard of an 
> enterprising shyster in Florida who takes a welding machine to a remote
> area 
> and somehow fuses the sand with that. (Let the buyer beware!!). I would
be
> 
> careful of the ones being sold on E-Bay or the web from overseas, for the

> same kinds of reasons.
> 
> Larry Rush
>