[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Rik Hill]

I've found mine around the base of the tall utility poles out in the 
desert. -Rik (in Tucson)


Jeanne Rhodes-Moen wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>