When lightning strikes sand on the beach or in a desert, it creates glass tubes called fulgurites. The strike vaporizes the sand to make unique geologic creations. And you can find them on the beach.

To understand how lightning creates glass underground, we need to explore the science of glass itself. Ordinary glass is made by melting silica, the main component of sand, at high temperatures ...

Last year the world recorded over 2.2 billion lightning strikes, a shocking study shows. One Texas city was deemed the ...

Inside towering clouds of volcanic ash, stunning lightning storms can create tiny crystal balls, a new study reports. Researchers recently discovered smooth glass spheres in ash from explosive ...

Lightning strikes during a storm in New York City, Aug. 7, 2018. Cory Seamer/Twitter The heat and humidity plaguing the Northeast this week conjured up thunderstorms and lightning strikes that ...

Up to 24,000 people around the world die every year from lightning-related incidents, so you might think this natural phenomenon is something to be feared and avoided. That's not always the case ...

Lightning news: When lightning strikes sand it creates glass (Image: GETTY/Minresco.com) The blast of a billion Joules radiates through the ground making fulgurite - hollow, glass-lined tubes with ...

But lightning within the ash cloud can heat the air to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius) for a few millionths of a second, melting the glass particles.