[Rockhounds] fulgurites

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

If you don't want to take the risk of making your own fulgurites with  
rockets

	http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageplanet/03deadlyskies/02lresearch/ 
indexmid.html

you can use NASA technology to pinpoint where lightning hits.

	http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/ 
lightning_strikes_020925.html

But just like minerals, if you make your own 'fulgurites' they are not  
natural and need to be labeled as man made or artifacts.


On Monday, Sep 15, 2008, at 10:43 America/Detroit, 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
>
> 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
>>
>
>
> -- 
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