Thank you for your question! You will find examples of fulgurites, which are sometimes referred to as "petrified lightning," in the Glass in Nature gallery at the Museum. The two large sand fulgurites pictured to the right are examples from the collection.
You can read more about fulgurites and other naturally occurring glass in this brief article, Glass in Nature, posted in All About Glass on the Museum's website.
Other resources that you might find interesting include the following:
- Perkins, Sid. "Stroke of Good Fortune: A Wealth of Data from Petrified Lightning." Science News 171, no. 7 (2007): 101.
- Wright, Fred W. Jr. "Florida's Fantastic Fulgurite Find." Weatherwise 51, no. 4 (July 1998): 28-31.
For younger researchers, you might want to look at the following book:
- Graham, Ian. You Wouldn’t Want to Live without Glass! New York: Franklin Watts, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2017. (See the section on "Nature's Glass.")
You can request these and other resources from your local library!
Important Note
The Corning Museum of Glass is currently closed to the public effective March 16 through April 22, 2020, as a precautionary measure for public health and safety. As a result, resources available to answer your questions are extremely limited. During this closure, you may be interested in searching our Ask a Glass Question FAQs or reviewing our Research Guides on various topics. We also highly recommend checking out The Corning Museum of Glass on YouTube for hours of artist demonstrations, lectures, and special events. Thank you for your patience.
