[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Jeanne Rhodes-Moen]

What a cool idea! I've only found one myself, though I had always wanted 
to since I first read about them...thing was, I didn't know that was 
what I'd found until years later! You see, it was down in S. Maryland 
where there is a lot of bog iron and I just found this neat, hollow 
piece, stoney and reddish tinged, never realizing it was a fulgarite 
until  later. You can see melt patterns inside etc. It's my 'prize' rock 
find!

Jeanne

Earl R. Verbeek wrote:
> 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
>
>
>